Each year, the United States designates the third Friday in May as Endangered Species Day. On May 21, 2021, Americans are asked to take some time to consider what people can do to preserve other species, and also celebrate the successes brought about by the 1973 Federal Endangered Species Act. The landmark legislation signed by President Nixon has helped a lot of important species come back from the brink of extinction. You can read about many of these success stories in the San Jose Public Library catalog:
- Green sea turtles off the Florida coast have been protected by habitat conservation.
- California condors benefited from a captive breeding recovery program in the 1980s when there were only 23 left. Today, more than 300 exist in the wild.
- Otters are legally protected from being hunted for fur, meat, or sport.
- Humpback whales have rebounded after commercial whaling was made illegal.
- Bald eagles were removed from the Endangered Species List in 2007, in large part because of the banning of DDT in 1972 and the Endangered Species Act's protection of their nests and habitats.
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