Looking at the Big Picture

With increasing frequency, the Department of the Interior is faced with the task of protecting animals and plants whose existence is threatened by the expanding boundaries of suburbia. When the Endangered Species Act compels the federal government's intervention, the situation is usually bleak: A species has been driven to the last corners of its habitat, and its prospects for survival are in doubt. Under these circumstances, opportunities to accommodate both conservation and economic interests are severely limited, and the conditions are prime for conflict to ignite over the fate of the last remnants of the undisturbed landscape.