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US to Remove Eagle From Endangered Species List

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 February 2006, 18:00 CST

WASHINGTON: The American bald eagle, the national symbol of the United States that appears on its coins and presidential stationery, is about to be removed from the endangered species list after a spectacular recovery in numbers.

The Bush Administration on Tuesday announced a plan to remove the majestic predator from the federal list of threatened and endangered animals, a move that environmentalists described as a victory after a decades-long effort to save the bird from extinction.

When the first Europeans arrived in North America, about 100,000 pairs of bald eagles populated the area that is now the continental United States.

But by 1963 there were only 417 known nesting pairs left in the lower 48 states of the United States. Most had been killed from the effects of the pesticide DDT, which thinned the shells of eagle eggs, and widespread development in bird-breeding habitats.

The bird, which became a national emblem during the War of Independence against the British it is said that hordes of them shrieked above the war's early battles also suffered from lead poisoning by eating waterfowl peppered with hunters' lead shot.

Today the number of breeding pairs is estimated at 7,066, with the birds thriving in the 48 continental US states and also Alaska, the state where they were never listed as threatened. The use of DDT was banned in 1972.

Under the plan to remove the bird from the endangered species list, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said that it would propose voluntary guidelines and a new definition of the term "disturb," making it clear to landowners and developers that significant protection still applies to the eagle under other laws.

Delisting the eagle does not mean that the bird can now be hunted, or that its numbers will necessarily drop again. Two other laws will continue to protect it: the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the 1940 Bald Eagle Protection Act, which was later revised to include the golden eagle.

Together those laws outlaw the killing or selling of bald eagles or the disturbing of the birds, their nests and eggs.

Although environmentalists welcomed the move, they took the opportunity to use the eagle's comeback to argue that the Endangered Species Act which Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to weaken must be left alone.

A Bill that would make it harder to designate land as an endangered habitat, a key element of the Act, has passed the House of Representatives under Republican guidance. One of the aims of the Bill is to loosen the scope of the Act in favour of landowners.

"At the very hour that some in Congress are poised to weaken the Endangered Species Act, we are reminded that its safeguards were vital in charting the path of recovery for the bald eagle and other imperilled wildlife," Larry Schweiger, the president of the National Wildlife Federation, said.

The image of a bald eagle appears on one side of the Great Seal of the United States, and on US gold coins, the US$1 bill, on half dollars and the quarter coins.

Source: China Daily; North American ed.

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