ON DEC. 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. For nearly two years, the legislation’s supporters had fought to keep its language straightforward and its directives clear, intent on its deceptively simple purpose: “to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved.”
The law won almost unanimous support from Congress, thanks in part to massive public demand for environmental protection. The 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s had not only powerfully conveyed the far-reaching effects of the pesticide DDT but merged Progressive Era concerns about wildlife conservation and urban public health into a new and broader movement. Major environmental disasters, especially the Santa Barbara, California,
