American Bald Eagles Making Dramatic Gains

The American bald eagle, whose population plummeted two decades ago, has made such a dramatic recovery that federal officials may soon declare it is no longer an endangered species in all or most of the United States, environmentalists and federal officials said Friday.

The downgrading in status from an “endangered” to a “threatened” species would mean that the nation’s symbol is no longer in immediate danger of extinction, and that protective actions can be relaxed.

Millions of dollars have been spent to save the eagle, but experts credit an estimated sixfold increase in the bird’s population since the early 1960s primarily to the 1972 banning of DDT. The pesticide, which continues to be used outside the United States, causes birds to lay eggs whose shells are so thin that they break before hatching.

The eagle’s reclassification to “threatened,” which must be reviewed in public hearings before a final decision is made, would represent a stunning victory in the costly and mostly losing battle waged by government and conservationists to save vanishing species.

So far, fewer than 20 species have been reclassified as “threatened” from “endangered,” and only a handful of the more than 500 imperiled species in the United States have been declared out of danger.

“The most important lesson in this is that the road to extinction can be reversed,” said Michael Bean, chairman of the wildlife program at the Environmental Defense Fund, a Washington-based environmental group. “The more sobering lesson is that while it is within our power to do for other species what we have done for the eagle, we simply lack the resources.”

Indeed, the eagle has commanded a large share of the country’s financial commitment to saving dying species. There are no figures on how much various government agencies and private groups have spent, but one conservationist who specializes in eagles put the figure at “at least” $10 million.

“There probably has been as much or more money spent on the bald eagle recovery than for any other single species,” said Daniel James, endangered species biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “That’s because it’s the national symbol, a flagship species for the endangered species program, a large, impressive bird that commands a great deal of awe and respect and public attention and sympathy.”

The bald eagle was first listed as an endangered species in parts of the country in 1967. Hundreds of eagles were later hatched in captivity, young birds were transported to parts of the country where they had disappeared, and research was undertaken to determine more thoroughly the eagles’ range, eating habits and other behavior. It was not until about 1977 that the bird’s population began growing, the year in which eaglets hatched after the DDT ban.

Although state and federal goals for recovering the species have been met in four of the nation’s five regions, the eagle’s population still remains a fraction of what it may once have been. Federal officials say that there are now 2,588 breeding pairs in the contiguous United States, compared to an estimated high of 50,000 when Europeans first settled this continent.

James and other U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said the agency will publish a “notice of intent” in January to review a reclassification. Public hearings would then be held, and a proposal would not be made until March. A final decision would be reached only after the 1990 eagle breeding season.

The “popular option” at Fish and Wildlife is to downgrade the eagle’s classification throughout the country, James said, and “it would be easy to conclude” that the bird’s status will be changed to a lesser imperiled category in parts of the country.

The bald eagle already is considered a “threatened” species in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and it never has been listed as endangered in Alaska, where there are 8,000 to 12,000 breeding pairs. In California, where the eagle is still endangered, there are 82 nesting pairs of the bird.

At a meeting a month ago, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials briefed representatives of major environmental groups on an internal draft proposal to consider a downgrading of the eagle’s classification. Participants said the government officials seemed to be “testing the waters” for their January announcement. Several environmental representatives posed questions, but no avid opposition was expressed.

“I think it (the change) is justified,” said Bean of the Environmental Defense Fund. “If you have things on the list that don’t really belong there, you call into question the legitimacy of other species that really do need to be on it.

“Given that the eagle has made a dramatic recovery, taking this action will convey a success story that is important for the endangered species program.”

Maurice LeFranc, director of the Institute for Wildlife Research for the National Wildlife Federation, said another option mentioned at the meeting was removing the eagle from the list altogether, which he said would raise strong opposition.

“I think they will take the prudent course and down-list,” he said.

LeFranc said he would support reclassification for most of the eagle’s range but probably would object to it in the Southeastern United States, where the eagle has not yet met recovery goals.

The official timetable for eagle recovery requires that nine of 12 states in the Southeast achieve certain goals over a three-year average. So far, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina have met or exceeded their targets, but six other states need improvement with some lacking only a handful of nesting pairs, said James of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Federal officials have not yet determined the number of eagles lost in South Carolina when Hurricane Hugo hit.

If the eagle’s status is reclassified to “threatened,” penalties for killing the bird would be reduced, and federal wildlife officials would have more flexibility in allowing federal development projects near eagle habitat.

But conservationists say the eagle would still receive adequate protection as a “threatened” species under the endangered species law and additional safeguarding under the Eagle Protection Act of 1940 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1913. Asked whether federal funding for eagle protection would drop, James said: “Hopefully not.”

As of Dec. 6, there were 427 “endangered” and 135 “threatened” species in the United States, and another 3,000 awaiting listing. Species that have either been taken off the list or reclassified downward include the American alligator, the snail darter and, in parts of the country, the brown pelican.

The Endangered Species Act prohibits federal agencies from jeopardizing the survivability of a listed species through such activities as dam construction, and prohibits the public from killing the species through hunting or indirectly by taking their habitat for such purposes as development.

Many species on the endangered list continue to decline in number, and some have been taken off because they became extinct.

“The eagle is a success story, and it’s good to have a success story as far as endangered species go,” LeFranc said.