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6$ REFLECTIONS ON THE ACT political entities, highly responsive to political considerations. Without an informed and committed citizenry, willing to liti- gate as well as castigate, endangered species protection on fed- eral lands can easily slip back into the "balancing" mode by which developmental land uses always seem to come out ahead. THE ESA IN LAWRENCE, KANSAS The ESA has local as well as comprehensive legal consequences. I live in Lawrence, a pleasant campus town in eastern Kansas. Except for occasional complaints about emissions from some local plant, Lawrence seems oblivious to, or above, the environ- mental disasters so common in other areas of the country. The local citizens are much more concerned about whether to build a second high school than where their trash will be buried. Even into this island of environmental serenity, however, the reality of endangered species law has intruded. Two recent incidents of little ultimate significance tell us a lot about recent changes in law and public attitudes. The first is the story of Agnes T. (The) Frog. Agnes is the personification of the northern crawfish frog, a species listed as threatened by the state but not by the federal government. The city, county, and state want to build a bypass road-with fed- eral money, of course. The bypass will traverse a wetland south of Lawrence that may be good frog habitat. Some of the local citizens-who probably detest this road more than they love northern crawfish frogs-are incensed. They formed the Com- mittee to Elect a True Amphibian, and Agnes received 1,850 votes in the last county election. Agnes has also generated a losing lawsuit3O along with considerable pressure on federal decision makers to accommodate frog needs in the. still-delayed environmental impact statement on the project. Agnes no doubt is an admirable creature in the eyes of her creator. Regrettably, however, no one is able to recount a single contribution she makes to human welfare, even under such self- justifying notions as "ecological health and stability." She is nevertheless legally wonderful. High officials in the Environ- mental Protection Agency and the highway administration worry about her. So too does the general counsel of the Council