Threatened no more: Bald eagles coming off list
WASHINGTON - The American bald eagle, once nearly extinct, is making a comeback. The government will confirm that Thursday when it takes the revered bird off the federal list of protected species.
“It is a man-on-the-moon moment for wildlife,” said Doug Inkley, a senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation. He credited the 1973 Endangered Species Act for saving the bird.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will make the announcement a day before a court-directed deadline to decide the eagle's status.
Conservationists have hailed the successful recovery of the eagle as clear evidence that the Endangered Species Act, which has been under attack in recent years from business groups and some members of Congress, can work.
“This is a great conservation success story, one that shows the Endangered Species Act really works,” said Michael Daulton of the National Audubon Society. “In addition to being our national symbol, the bald eagle is now a symbol of environmental stewardship as well.”
Around Washington, D.C., the bald eagle appears on the Great Seal of the United States, as well as official seals at the White House, Pentagon and State Department, in a marble sculpture at the Federal Reserve, as a mascot for the Washington Nationals baseball team and on U.S. coins and paper money.
Nearly 10,000 nesting pairs in lower 48
Government biologists have documented nearly 10,000 nesting pairs of bald eagles, including at least one pair in each of the 48 contiguous states. This compares to only 417 such pairs in 1963 when the bird was on the verge of disappearing everywhere in the country except for Alaska.
While no longer declared endangered or threatened, the bald eagle will continue to be protected by a 1940 federal law that will make it illegal to kill the bird — as well as state statutes.
Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service also is preparing guidelines for protecting the bird's nesting habitat under the 1940 law and developing a permitting process that landowners will have to use if eagles are found on property they want to develop.
Native to most of North America, bald eagles are now present in 49 states. They were never endangered or threatened in Alaska and are still present there; they are not tropical birds and never were present in Hawaii.
Despite its status as the country's national symbol, the bald eagle over the years has been abused and maligned as a scavenger and dangerous predator. Tens of thousands of the birds were killed by hunters over the years.
