01/11/2019
Friday: Conservation
Return of the Bald Eagle
A North American species with an historic range
from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico, the bald
eagle is an Endangered Species Act (ESA) success story.
Forty years ago, our national symbol was in danger
of extinction throughout most of its range. Habitat
destruction and degradation, illegal shooting, and the
contamination of its food source, largely as a
consequence of the pesticide DDT, decimated the eagle
population.
When America adopted the bald eagle as the
national symbol in 1782, the country may have had as
many as 100,000 nesting eagles. The first major decline
probably began in the mid to late 1800s, coinciding with
the decline of waterfowl, shorebirds and other prey.
By 1940, noting that the species was “threatened
with extinction,” Congress passed the Bald Eagle
Protection Act, which prohibited killing, selling or
possessing the species.
Shortly after World War II, DDT was hailed as a
new pesticide to control mosquitoes and other insects.
Bald eagles poisoned with DDT produced brittle
eggshells that often broke during incubation.
By 1963, with only 487 nesting pairs of bald eagles
remaining, the Environmental Protection Agency took the historic and, at the time, controversial step of
banning the use of DDT in the United States.
In 1967, the Secretary of the Interior listed bald
eagles south of the 40th parallel under the ESA of 1966;
the Service listed the species in 1978
as endangered in 45 of the lower 48
states under the ESA of 1973.
On June 28, 2007, the Fish and
Wildlife Service announced the
recovery of our nation’s symbol and
removal from the list of threatened
and endangered species with an
estimated 9,800 nesting pairs of bald
eagles in the contiguous United States.
The bird remains protected by the Migratory Bird
Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection
Act. Both laws prohibit killing, selling or otherwise
harming eagles, their nests or eggs.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will continue to
monitor eagle populations and may relist eagles as
endangered or threatened if warranted. Individual states
may also pass or implement laws to protect bald eagles.
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
