Representative Pombo has gotten a lot of mileage in the Endangered Species Act debate by calling it a failure over and over and over again. The logic, presumably, is that if you repeat a lie often enough people will eventually believe it. A funny thing is happening, though. The more that Rep. Pombo regurgitates the same misleading story the more that other folks - scientists, conservationists, others - are demonstrating how wrong he his.

This morning we came across yet another study showing just how successful the Endangered Species Act has been at saving our most imperiled species. This study, released March 16, 2006 by the American Bird Conservancy, found that:

"Of the 43 birds protected by the Act that breed in the continental U.S., 44% have increased since listing, and a further 19% are stable, or have been stabilized by conservation measures."

This isn't surprising but is welcome news nonetheless. Equally important is their finding that of the species that are protected under the Act but still declining (less than a quarter of them), many have only recently been added to the list, meaning that the Act's protections have had less time to work. Those that have improved since being listed have been on the list for an average of ten years longer than those that have decreased.

This report's conclusions mirror those of every other study we've seen. The Act works. The Act prevents extinction. The longer a species is listed under the Act the more likely it is to be stable or improving (i.e., it takes time to reverse the downward spiral).

If you want to know more, you can download the full report (1 MB in PDF) or read their news release.