ESA shakeups: Does protecting species have to be a zero-sum game?

The American burying beetle doesn’t look like much. But the inch-long, black and orange bug is at the center of a controversy.

The beetle is considered endangered, so its habitat is protected by law. Construction projects, oil drilling, and other industrial projects can come to a screeching halt if one beetle is discovered on the property. And that can translate to job losses, a price many say is unreasonable for the sake of a bug.

But others argue that the burying beetle provides too important of an ecosystem service to risk total loss of the insects from their historic range across the Great Plains through the Midwest and into New England. They bury dead things, then eat them, kick-starting the process of turning carcasses into fertilizer.

The debate around the American burying beetle doesn’t stand alone. It’s a microcosm of tension surrounding a 45-year-old environmental law designed to halt extinctions.

Close quartersGiving biodiversity weightA path forward?