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The Eagle's Recovery

America’s national symbol is making a comeback.

The bald eagle, declared an endangered species when nesting pairs dropped from 100,000 to less than 500 in the lower 48 states in the early 1960s, will soon be taken off the endangered list.

Public and private efforts to protect the majestic birds from pesticides, hunting and habitat destruction have helped the species rebuild its numbers over the past few decades: There are now more than 8,000 nesting pairs on the continental United States and more than 40,000 individual eagles living in Alaska.

The birds will continue to enjoy protection under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which prohibits the disturbance of the birds or their nests. But they will no longer be considered threatened or endangered, a label given to species that seem headed toward extinction.

Bald eagles had been dropping substantially in numbers as previously quiet and pristine areas gave way to development, disturbing their habitats, and pesticides such as DDT caused their eggs to thin and break before hatching. The federal government declared the bald eagle to be endangered in most of the lower 48 states in 1963; it banned the use of DDT in 1972.

Since then, public information campaigns, enforcement of federal protections and public and private efforts to provide habitat for the birds have proven that species can be brought back from the brink of extinction.

For more information about this story, go to www.eagles.org/status.html.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org