In Listed, I examined a few high-profile species where there appeared to be a clear conflict between conservation and economics: the red-cockaded woodpecker that knocked down a city, a pair of endangered mussels that sucked Atlanta dry, the gray wolves that outhunted elk hunters. What I found was that there was often benefits of species protection that came directly to local communities. Let’s look at the conflict between Atlanta and the fat threeridge and purple bankclimber, two endangered mussels on the Apalachicola River. As I mentioned, oysters, commercial fish, and even tupelo honey are dependent on the same waters that sustain these endangered species. The river supports 1,200 oystermen, 25 packinghouses, and hundreds of fishermen and beekeepers. In Yellowstone, one study found that wolves are now a $35-million-a-year tourist industry. In fact, Americans spend more than $120 billion a year hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching. That’s more than the Super Bowl. It’s more than professional football. It’s more than was spent on all spectator sports, amusement parks, casinos, bowling alleys, and ski slopes combined.And it’s much more than just tourism. When you protect dunes for endangered mice, you also protect the homes behind them from storms and erosion. There are tradeoffs in all our policy decisions, of course, but endangered species should be seen as sentinels for a healthy environment and their protection can help all of us.I hope that Listed will help reframe the argument about protecting endangered species.For too long the focus has been on the costs of protection. But since the passage of the Endangered Species Act on 1973, there have been several developments in economics and epidemiology that show just how dependent we are on biodiversity for our well-being.Many studies have revealed that the loss of biodiversity can increase the spread of infectious diseases such as West Nile virus, hanta virus, and Lyme disease. The collapse of an ecological community can result in the rise of a generalist species—such as the white-footed mouse or the deer mouse—that host a viral or bacterial pathogen. As other species—which don’t pass on the disease—drop out, more people become infected. A healthy ecological community can be a buffer against such zoonotic illnesses.Biodiversity and wilderness protection belongs at the top of our priority list. If we value the many benefits of species protection, we’re more likely to do everything in our power to reduce the extinction rate, to stem the tide of the sixth mass extinction.