Since its inception in 1973, the Endangered Species Act has been credited with helping to bring numerous species back from the brink of extinction. But as the country has continued to grow and develop it has also forced us to grapple with balancing the needs of endangered wildlife with the needs of humans. Today on The Sunday Story from Up First, host Ayesha Rascoe is joined by Montana Public Radio's Nick Mott to talk about his reporting on the Endangered Species Act, in a new podcast called The Wide Open, and how we navigate our complicated relationship with nature.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What is the Endangered Species Act and why is it important?
I'm Aisha Roscoe. This is the Sunday Story from Up First, where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story. So, I'm a real city slicker, okay? I am not someone who you're going to catch out on a hiking trail, and I don't like to rough it. Not at all. Wherever I go, there needs to be running water, there needs to be a working toilet, and there should be some Wi-Fi, okay?
But even though I'm not a nature girl, I do like the idea of the wilderness, and I do like to see it from afar through a window in a nice heated cabin. And you know, the thing of it is, is that the wild animals that we think of often when we're thinking of wilderness, a lot of those animals would not be here at all if it weren't for this 51-year-old federal law, the Endangered Species Act.
The Endangered Species Act is said to be one of the strongest pieces of environmental legislation we have on the books. It's been credited with saving the lives of grizzly bears and wolves that were hunted to the brink of extinction, bald eagle populations that were decimated by pesticides, and woodpeckers affected by deforestation.
But there are also plenty of critics of the law, people who say it has gone too far and has caused grave harm to communities and economies across the nation. Nick Mott lives in a place where the debate over the Endangered Species Act is both relevant and very raw, Montana.
Mott's a reporter with Montana Public Radio, and he's produced the podcast, The Wide Open, which explores the country's complicated and changing relationship with the Endangered Species Act. He joins me now. Hi, Nick.
Hey, Ayesha. Thanks so much for having me.
So, Nick, I'm curious, why and how did you get interested in reporting on endangered species?
You know, growing up like you, I was a bit of a city slicker. I grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, and this stuff wasn't directly relevant to my life. But after college, I moved out west. I was doing conservation work for the government, meaning things like trail building and cutting down trees and planting native plants.
And in that time, it seemed like endangered species issues were everywhere I looked. So I was trained on what to do if I came across a desert tortoise. And in diners, ranchers would sort of accost me about if I was on a tortoise crew because I was wearing a government shirt. I was –
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