ABSTRACT
The Endangered Species Act is a wonderfully idealistic piece of legislation that was apparently written by people who had absolutely no idea about how society works. The law's goals are so noble and uplifting that few could disagree with them. The fundamental cause of species decline in the United States is that wildlife area commons. Under British common law, wildlife inhabiting a piece of land were owned by the owner of that land. Insight into what is wrong with the act, and how to fix it, can be gained by examining two species: the black-footed ferret and the Utah prairie dog. One hundred years ago, millions of black-footed ferrets thrived in the prairies of the Great Plains and the intermountain West. Growing prairie dog populations were a symptom of overgrazing. But a 1902 federal research report tragically confused cause and effect and blamed the effects of overgrazing on the prairie dogs. This put ranchers on the warpath against prairie dogs.
