There are few environmental debates more heated than whether or not to add - or drop - an animal from the Endangered Species Act . Case in point: the debate over whether or not gray wolves in the American West are sufficiently recovered to deserve removal from the list. In the Act’s forty five year history, only thirty nine species have been declared fully recovered. Critics of the Endangered Species Act often cite that as evidence that the law is ineffective, and too cumbersome to be worthwhile