Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, February 4th, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act.

There had been a couple preservation and conservation laws passed in the 60s, but this was truly the landmark act. It put the

spotlight on extinction of plants and animals and the pressure on government to

preserve not just species but the habitats in which they live.

One historian referred to it as, quote,

the Magna Carta of the environmental movement.

We haven't done an episode on the Magna Carta on this podcast,

but listeners, I think you can pick it up from context clues.

You get the gist gist this is very important

I want to give a shout out to the bald eagle the red wolf the San Clemente Indian paintbrush the big bend

Gambusia the Hawaiian Goose.

Goose.

All of these are species that have bounced back after initially being on the endangered species list.

And here to discuss it all is, as always,

Nicole Hammer of Columbia hello

Nicky hello jody long time fan we should say of the Virginia big-eared bat you've

always talked about it you keep bringing it up on the podcast and now's your chance

yeah but it's to balance the fact that I'm also a long time enemy of the Big Ben Gambosia.

So that's right.

Well, that's unfortunate because Kelly, Carter Jackson of Wellesley, you are a fan of the Gambusia.

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