U S takes bald eagle off endangered species list
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
The Star, 29 June 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The American bald eagle, pushed to near-extinction in the United States by the pesticide DDT, is now recovered and will be removed from the Endangered Species list, the U.S. interior secretary said on Thursday.
Dirk Kempthorne delivered the announcement about the U.S. national bird at a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial near the Potomac River, citing its “dramatic recovery.”
President George W. Bush struck a patriotic note in a White House statement recognizing the bald eagle’s comeback: “This great conservation achievement means more and more Americans across the nation will enjoy the thrill of seeing bald eagles soar. What a wonderful way to celebrate this Fourth of July.”
Conservation groups, including the National Wildlife Federation, were jubilant.
“The remarkable recovery of the bald eagle is one of America’s greatest achievements… The American bald eagle is once again flying free of the need of Endangered Species Act intensive care protection,” said Larry Schweiger, the wildlife group’s president.
The de-listing becomes official 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The eagle, which features as an emblem on the presidential seal and many other places in Washington and nationally, had dwindled to just 417 nesting pairs in the 48 contiguous states in 1963, due in large part to the ravages of DDT.
The pesticide persists in the food chain and eventually made eagles’ eggshells so thin that roosting birds squashed them when they sat on their nests, cutting down on the species’ ability to reproduce. DDT was banned in 1972.
There are now some 10,000 nesting pairs in the 48 states, a 25-fold increase in the last 40 years, Kempthorne said.
The bald eagle was never endangered in Alaska, and never existed in the tropical climate of Hawaii.
The bald eagle’s status was down-graded from endangered to threatened in 1995, and in 1999, President Bill Clinton announced the government’s intention to remove it from the list of creatures protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Kempthorne’s announcement ended years of wrangling over the bald eagle’s fate after its expected de-listing. The dispute hinged on the definition of the word “disturb” as applied to the endangered bird.
Under federal guidelines, bald eagles may not be disturbed, which means they may not be agitated or bothered to a degree that they are injured or that their normal breeding, feeding and sheltering behavior are substantially interfered with.
The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act still protect the bald eagle, and prohibit killing, selling or otherwise harming eagles, their nests or eggs.