Bald eagle's comeback is a triumph — for now

The bald eagle, that majestic master of the comeback, was removed from the federal endangered-species list today.

Eight years after government biologists first declared the eagles had recovered from near extinction, and months after a lawsuit finally prompted federal action, talk of the anticipated decision by the Interior Department came with a flurry of celebration.

But it's also time to reflect.

It has been 40 years since the eagle was first declared in danger of extinction. Since then, the birds have become, to some, a powerful promotion for the Endangered Species Act (ESA). But others caution that the national symbol still faces a range of threats, and now is not the time to let down the guard.

"This is a story about American dedication to our symbol and the ingenuity to find ways to provide protection for this bird," said Betsy Loyless, vice president for public policy at the National Audubon Society's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"We worked together to provide for the safety of the eagle and its habitat. It took extraordinary measures."

Yet now Audubon and other conservation groups are wary: "We will want to know how easily developers can disrupt their nests," she said.

Endangered in 1967

The eagle was first declared endangered in 1967, four years after the population hit bottom, with only 417 nesting pairs in the 48 states. It was one of the first species to be added to the ESA after it became law in 1973.

Despite being the national symbol, the birds had been subjected to terrible abuse, according to the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona. Thought to be dangerous predators, they were killed and fed to hogs in Maine, shot from airplanes in California, poisoned in South Dakota and hunted under a 50-cent bounty in Alaska.

Some 100,000 eagles were killed in Alaska alone between 1917 and 1950, according to the center. The state of Georgia once declared that eagles, like the "hawk, owl, crow, sparrow and meadowlark are considered to do more harm than good and may be shot at any time."

The pesticide DDT killed adult eagles and damaged their eggs before it was banned nationally in 1972.

The Center for Biological Diversity this week released a national study of bald eagle populations that found a remarkable 11,000 birds. In Washington, the baldies have rebuilt their population from just over 100 nests in the 1970s to an estimated 835 breeding pairs in 2005. Washington today has the fourth-largest number of eagle pairs in the Lower 48, after Florida, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, according to the Center.

"It was really extraordinary, heroic to do all this, and it took a long time," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the center.

A long, hard job

But it has been no easy feat, the eagle scientists stress.

The rescue sometimes required rappelling from helicopters to pluck eggs from remote eagle aeries to incubate them in labs. Scientists deposited newly hatched chicks back in the nests for parents to tend.

Eagles were also relocated from Alaska and Canada to Eastern states, to rebuild populations.

The recovery of the eagle is a measure of how far we've come as a society, Suckling said. But people shouldn't kid themselves that undoing our mistakes is quick or easy.

"This took 40 years. To think we can recover species in five or 10 or even 20 years -- and that if we don't it's a failure -- is a ridiculous expectation," he said.

Since it was passed, 21 animal species and three plant species have recovered under the ESA. About 1,314 species are still listed.

Threats still out there

Today, bald eagles still face habitat loss from development and sprawl. They face depleted food supplies in rivers and waterways where fish populations themselves are in trouble.

The ESA prohibited killing the birds and harming or harassing their nests.

Still, the delisting does not mean the eagles will no longer be protected.

Eagles will still have the force of other state and federal laws behind them, including the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald Eagle Protection Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service has also just issued guidelines extending protection to bald eagle nests, both active and inactive.

Washington is also one of the few states with a special eagle law that directs state biologists to work with landowners to leave buffer zones around eagle nests. Both the large trees the nests are in, as well as trees that screen the nest, must be left standing.

Since 1986, the state has worked with more than 3,200 landowners to protect eagle habitat using such management plans, according to Elizabeth Rodrick, Bald Eagle Management Coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"It's not open season on eagles," said Doug Zimmer, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It would still be a crime to hurt an eagle."

Meanwhile, the feds will keep monitoring eagle populations for five years, and could relist them under the ESA if needed.

Yet this week, eagle fans were celebrating the power and promise of the law. This year the gray wolf and Yellowstone grizzly were also removed from the list, joining the brown pelican, American alligator and American peregrine falcon as ESA success stories. Gray whales, once endangered, today cruise the Pacific Coast more than 20,000 strong. They were taken off the endangered-species list in 1994.

"It is proof that when we make a commitment to fund and carry out our environmental laws, that we can save species and undo our environmental mistakes," said Nina Carter, executive director of Audubon Washington.

"This delisting is a conservation success story and it is worth celebrating."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com. Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.

Information in this article, originally published June 28, 2007, was corrected July 3, 2007. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that in 1963, there were 417 bald eagles documented in the continental U.S. when there were actually 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles documented in 1963.