The Endangered Species Act came into being in 1973 by
order of Congress to attempt to protect threatened and endangered fish,
wildlife, and plant species from extinction in the United States. "The purposes
of this Act are to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which the
endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved, to provide a
program for the conservation of such endangered and threatened species, and to
take such steps as may be appropriate..."
In 1982, Congress adopted Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act as a way to promote, " creative partnerships between the public and private sectors...in the interest of species and habitat conservation." Section 10 authorized Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) to give landowners a means by which they could "incidentally take" listed species or their habitats only after the landowners have identified what will be done to "minimize and mitigate" the impact of the permitted take on the listed species.
Copyright©2004, Foster Creek Conservation District