The largely untold story about the ESA is the growing list of successful agreements with private landowners who are voluntarily restoring habitat, reintroducing imperiled species and helping at-risk species before they ever get on the endangered list. Remarkably, many of these efforts are taking place in parts of the country where antipathy for government regulation has historically been strongest.

Two of the country's preeminent experts, with more than 40 years of experience on the ESA between them, are available for interviews:

Michael J. Bean has headed the Wildlife Program of Environmental Defense since 1977, and this year became the codirector of that organization's new Center for Conservation Incentives. His book The Evolution of National Wildlife Law, the third edition of which was written with Melanie J. Rowland in 1997, is generally regarded as the leading text on the subject of wildlife conservation law.

W. Robert Irvin is director of U.S. Ecoregional Conservation for WWF. Prior to joining WWF, Irvin served as vice president for Marine Wildlife Conservation and general counsel for the Center for Marine Conservation; senior counsel for U.S. Fish and Wildlife on the Majority Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; and as counsel and director of the Fisheries and Wildlife Division, National Wildlife Federation. He is coeditor, with Donald C. Baur, of the book Endangered Species Act: Law, Policy, and Perspectives.