“Around 1962, when we were living on Lake Erie, my parents took me on a special trip to see an eagle’s nest, thinking it might be my last chance for such a sight,” recalls naturalist Michael Arduser. 1962 was the year that Rachael Carson’s book Silent Spring made the public aware that widespread use of the insecticide DDT was decimating the country’s bird population. Eagles and other raptors were especially hard hit.
Fortunately, in the long run their fears were not realized. Although the country’s bald eagle population remained very low for nearly twenty more years, around 1980 the tide began to turn. Since then the eagle population has been steadily increasing. In fact, Arduser, who is with the Missouri Department of Conservation, reports that the state now officially has 150 pairs of nesting eagles. He and his colleagues think the actual number may be close to 200, up from zero pairs in 1980.
In 1978, the federal government listed the bald eagle as ‘endangered’ in 43 states, and ‘threatened’ in the other 5 of the lower 48. From about 20,000 estimated nesting pairs in 1800, by 1963 only 417 pairs remained outside of Alaska.
The possible extinction of our national bird spurred regional recovery teams to undertake intensive programs to bring the eagles back. These efforts were so successful that by 1995 bald eagles removed from endangered list, and upgraded to threatened. Numbers continued to grow, and in 2007, the American bald eagle was “delisted” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bald eagles have doubled in number approximately every five years.
“The eagle’s recovery is a testimonial to the resilience of nature, and also to people’s willingness to recognize problems and correct them,” says Arduser.
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This article was originally published in the St. Louis Beacon.