Today we’ll talk with Lowell Baier about the new books: The Codex of the Endangered Species Act, volumes 1 & 2.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is one of the most cherished and reviled laws ever passed. It mandates protection and preservation of all the nation’s species and biodiversity, whatever the cost. It has been a lightning rod for controversy and conflicts between industry/business and environmentalists.
The year 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the ESA. It was also another year in an ongoing crisis of biodiversity loss, species extinctions, climate change, and natural disasters. Conservationist, environmental historian, author, and attorney Lowell E. Baier brings to life the stark choice that now faces America and the world: act to save our vanishing natural world or risk the consequences.
This is not a hopeless choice. Through a combination of original research spanning the history of American wildlife conservation and the last 50 years of the ESA; new research and bold proposals for the future of the ESA; and a year-long series of events, Baier is joined by over two dozen ESA scholars, practitioners, and policy experts with a bold vision for the future of the ESA and wildlife conservation in America.
Lowell E. Baier is an attorney and a legal and environmental historian and author. He has worked in Washington, D.C. throughout his sixty-year career as a tireless advocate for natural resources and wildlife conservation. Baier was recognized as the Conservationist of the Year by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in 2008, by Outdoor Life Magazine in 2010, and by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 2013. In 2016, the National Wildlife Federation awarded him their highest honor, the Jay N. “Ding” Darling Conservation Award for a lifetime of conservation service. He is the author of numerous books, including Inside the Equal Access to Justice Act: Environmental Litigation and the Crippling Battle over America’s Lands, Endangered Species, and Critical Habitats; Saving Species on Private Lands: Unlocking Incentives to Conserve Wildlife and Their Habitats; and Federalism, Preemption, and the Nationalization of American Wildlife Management: The Dynamic Balance Between State and Federal Authority. Baier lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
