It just meant their management was once again governed solely by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Taking the Bald Eagle off the endangered species list didn't mean an end to federal regulations concerning the management of the species. In 2007, it became official: the Bald Eagle was no longer endangered, or even threatened. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed “delisting” the Bald Eagle in 1999, based on the fact that recovery goals for all regions of the country had largely been met a decade before - and populations were still on the rise. By 1997, this number had increased to more than 5,000. In 1963, when the species was at its lowest ebb, there were only an estimated 417 breeding pairs of Bald Eagles in the lower 48 states. (The eagle population in Alaska had remained healthy, and was never in need of listing.) The resulting efforts to restore the species went beyond the simple elimination of DDT use: eagles' nests and habitat were now strictly protected from human disturbance of all sorts. Some eagle populations were listed under the Endangered Species Preservation Act, which became law in 1967 this protection was maintained with the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973.įinally, in 1978, ESA protection expanded to include Bald Eagles in all 48 contiguous states. Then, in 1940, the Bald Eagle Protection Act (now the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act) expanded the law's reach, prohibiting the killing or possession of Bald Eagles or their feathers, eggs, or nests. It began with the passage of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918. Legal protection of Bald Eagles themselves proceeded in a more piecemeal fashion. The Environmental Protection Agency eventually banned DDT a decade later, just two years after the agency was established. Rachel Carson's seminal 1962 book Silent Spring helped to spark the environmental movement and exposed the hazards of rampant pesticide use on birds and other wildlife. Ingesting the chemicals caused eagle eggshells to become so thin that large numbers of nests failed. Its effectiveness made it popular, but it came at a cost: DDT residue began to wash off agricultural fields and into aquatic ecosystems, and soon Bald Eagles and other large predatory birds across the country were eating contaminated fish. Bald Eagle by Abhijay Wilkinson/Shutterstockīut what did “delisting” truly mean for Bald Eagles? And a decade later, where does the species stand? An Icon in Troubleĭeveloped in the 1940s, DDT - short for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane - was one of the first synthetic insecticides.
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