In 1978 the Tennessee Valley Authority attempted to build a dam which was nearly finished when Mr. Snail Darter showed up in the water upstream. The builders of the dam and the snail fans went to court and the dam builders lost. The courts ruled that construction on the dam had to stop because this little three-inch slug happened to be on the list of endangered species. Congress told Americans that endangered species needed to be protected "regardless of the cost" (don't you just love the way they spend your money?).
In the fall of 1993 fires were spreading throughout large parts of Southern California. When this happened in the past, home owners have worked to fight the fires, and keep them from reaching their property, by constructing firebreaks and clearing dried brush that is close to their homes. In 1993 however, the ESA prevented homeowners from doing this. People were literally forced to stand there and watch their homes burn, knowing that if they defied the federal government they would be forced to pay fines and even spend time in jail. All thanks to a rat. No, not your local government bureaucrat but the Stephen's kangaroo rat.
These examples may lead you to think that the ESA is concerned only with people who seek to harm the endangered species, but that simply isn't true. Landowners who discover an endangered species living on their property (for example, amongst the trees) must stop manipulating the property with things like "prescribed burns" or "selective cuts" which help to maintain a healthy forest. Ironically, what often attracts the endangered species to the land is a healthy forest. Once an endangered species is discovered (possibly thriving!) on someone's land, the owners are no longer allowed to do whatever it was that they did in the first place that attracted these animals to their land.
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