Alaska town to bid farewell to troublemaking bald eagles

HOMER, Alaska — The most convenient place in the United States to take great close-ups of bald eagles is closing.

The City Council in Homer, a tourist and fishing town on Alaska's Kachemak Bay, voted this week to phase out a feeding program that for nearly 30 years has drawn hundreds of eagles to feast each winter on handouts of herring, halibut and salmon. The town acted after Alaska's Board of Game declined to regulate the feeding.

Between free meals in Homer over the years, the U.S. national symbol — which is thriving in Alaska, where there are about 50,000 of them — has become a chronic troublemaker. The birds of prey, as large as 12 pounds with maximum wingspans of 7 feet, electrocute themselves on power lines, gouge each other's eyes out and make themselves sick by snacking at the town dump. They also eat the occasional cat or small dog.

The feeding ban, which goes into effect next winter, makes a temporary exception for Jean Keene, Homer's celebrated "Eagle Lady."

Keene, 82, has been feeding eagles for 28 years. Her daily gifts of tossed, freezer-burned fish to crowds of eagles have lured thousands of professional photographers from around the world to Homer. They shoot — and later sell — spectacular pictures of the birds while never straying more than a few feet from their warm SUVs.

The City Council voted to stop Keene from feeding the birds by 2010, and she has said she will obey the law.