endangered species' means any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range other than a species of the Class Insect a determined by the Secretary to constitute a pest whose protection under the provisions of this Act would present an overwhelming and overriding risk to man." A threatened species "means any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range." (The Endangered Species Act of 1973)

People can go into the moral and ethical concerns about ending any evolutionary line that goes back 3.5 billion years (as does our own), some confuse the endangered species with the operative phrase 'no practical use to humans.' What it really means is something more like 'no known practical use given our current state of knowledge.' (Lovejoy)

The Pacific Yew is an example...
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