Bald Eagles May Soon Return to Skies Over Channel Islands

National Park Service officials hope to repopulate the northern Channel Islands with bald eagles, 50 years after the majestic birds were killed off by widespread pesticide contamination.

A proposal to bring back the birds calls for a five-year study to determine whether the eagles could survive independently on Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands off the Ventura County coast.

In restoration projects on Santa Catalina Island, residual effects of the now-banned DDT--still lingering in a 100-ton pool of pesticide on the ocean floor off the Palos Verde Peninsula--have prevented the eagles from reproducing naturally.

A toxic byproduct of DDT, called DDE, thins the shells of bald eagle eggs, leaving them highly susceptible to being crushed by mother birds before they are hatched.

Researchers hope that the study, which would include extensive monitoring of the birds early on, can prevent the same scenario from unfolding on the northern islands.

If approved by a committee of state and federal agencies, the study would begin as soon as this summer.

“If we find that the eagles aren’t going to do any better on the northern islands, everyone will have to rethink things and determine what else we are going to do,” said Laura Valoppi, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The restoration effort is made possible because of a $145-million lawsuit settlement with Montrose Chemical Co., a Los Angeles County pesticide manufacturer that dumped an estimated 1,800 tons of DDT into the ocean from 1947 to 1971.

About $30 million of the settlement is earmarked for projects to restore damaged birds, fish and other wildlife.

Bald eagles, the United States’ symbol of freedom, are still listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, said Kate Faulkner, chief of natural resource management for the Channel Islands National Park.

During the last 30 years, the birds have repopulated in other parts of the country, but the Channel Islands remain one of the few areas where recovery goals have not been met, Faulkner said.

“The bald eagles haven’t wanted to come back on their own,” she said.

As in the Catalina Island project, the eagles on the Channel Islands would come from a breeding program at the San Francisco Zoo.

Up to a dozen chicks annually would be placed on Santa Cruz Island, in boxes mounted to tall wooden poles simulating a nest environment, Faulkner said.

Then would begin a thorough--and potentially pricey--monitoring program to collect data on the eagles’ flight and feeding patterns, as well as the health of the environment around the islands, Valoppi said.

“We don’t want to just release eagles out there and walk away, because we know there’s a chance they won’t do well, as on Catalina,” she said. “All of this data is very important to answer these questions before we move ahead and fully commit the money to restore bald eagles on the Channel Islands.”

Officials say they do not yet know the project’s total price tag.

Proposed in the plan, which was unveiled last month, are four main components: surveillance of the eagles using radio and satellite technology; monitoring of the eagles’ feeding on sea lion carcasses, which are the primary carriers of the poison DDE; a program to capture the birds at 2 to 3 years old and take blood samples to be analyzed for DDE exposure; and collection of data to compare with data from the early 1990s and determine trends.

Early estimates put the cost of the study, not including the blood-sampling portion, at $350,000 a year.

Biologists believe that at one time there were 24 nesting pairs of bald eagles on the four northernmost islands. Their presence, reduced over time by the intrusion of man, ended altogether with the widespread use of DDT in the 1950s.

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For More Information

*Copies of the feasibility study and environmental report may be obtained by sending an e-mail request to MSRP@noaa.gov.

* Written comments will be taken until April 4, and should be sent to Montrose Settlements Restoration Program, 501 W. Ocean Blvd., Suite 4470, Long Beach, CA 90802.

* The agency is holding a public meeting to discuss the plan at 7 p.m. March 28 at its headquarters on Spinnaker Drive in Ventura.