Govt may remove bald eagles from endangered list

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) (Reuters) – Citing a dramatic
increase in the number of bald eagles, the head of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service announced a plan on Monday that could
remove the national symbol from protections under the federal
Endangered Species Act.

“The recovery of the bald eagle is a great national success
story,” Dale Hall told reporters, signaling the agency’s plan
to reopen public comment on the delisting.

“This bird has a lot of the public’s attention,” he said.
“We wanted to make sure we did it right.”

The bald eagle is a U.S. symbol that appears on everything
from the dollar bill to the presidential seal.

The plan to remove bald eagles from the endangered species
list is the latest of recent proposals by the Fish and Wildlife
Service to delist iconic American wildlife, including gray
wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and grizzly bears in the
Yellowstone National Park area.

The Fish and Wildlife Service first floated a proposal in
1999 to remove bald eagles from the list of endangered and
threatened species but it was stalled by a controversy over
whether separate federal laws affecting the popular bird
offered enough protection.

The agency also announced on Monday that it wants to
strengthen wording of one of those laws as well as provide
voluntary guidelines for human activities that may interfere
with bald eagles or destroy their nesting, roosting and feeding
areas.

Conservationists hailed the eagle’s comeback and said they
generally supported the delisting.

“The return of our national symbol is a victory for
wildlife, a victory for conservation and a victory for the
Endangered Species Act,” said Doug Inkley, senior science
officer for the National Wildlife Federation.

The bald eagle population in the lower 48 states has soared
from 417 nesting pairs in 1963 to more than 7,066 nesting
pairs.

The bird’s dwindling numbers first became a concern in 1940
when Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act. Over the
decades, continued declines in eagle populations, with causes
ranging from use of the pesticide DDT to logging of nesting
trees, prompted a series of legal protections.