Recovering America’s Wildlife Act

State agencies throughout the U.S. have identified over 8,000 species in need of proactive protection to prevent them from becoming endangered. It is estimated that implementing 2/3 of each states’ plans to conserve these species will take $1.3 billion dollars. Current funding is about $70 million, which is less than 5% of what’s necessary to conserve species most at risk. Protecting a diverse array of species and aiding in the recovery of wildlife whose populations are in serious decline requires a proactive and collaborative approach. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act requires the use of the best available science, clear management priorities, broad landscape scale collaborative partnerships and adequate resources to deal with the decline species. While the Endangered Species Act seeks to intervene when a species is nearing extinction, this piece of federal legislation takes a proactive approach to prevent the decline of species and ecosystems before they are on the brink. This saves money and makes recovery efforts easier. Through early and strategic intervention, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act gives state agencies with jurisdiction over wildlife the necessary resources to support recovery efforts for the species is in the emergency room.