WASHINGTON, June 28, 2007
Bald Eagle No Longer Endangered
With Population Soaring, Government Removes American Emblem From Threatened List
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Play CBS Video Video Bald Eagle Population Rising CBS News RAW: For the first time in 50 years, two baby bald eagles hatched on Catalina Island off Southern California's coast without human help. San Francisco Zoo is monitoring their progress.
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Government biologists have documented nearly 10,000 nesting pairs of bald eagles. This compares to only 417 such pairs in 1963. (AP)
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Photo Essay Animal Instincts Photos: Take a gander at some of our favorite critters.
President Bush said the bald eagle's resurgence should be credited to cooperation between private landowners and federal and state governments. "This great conservation achievement means more and more Americans across the nation will enjoy the thrill of seeing bald eagles soar," he said.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, making the formal announcement at the Jefferson Memorial, said: "Today I am proud to announce the eagle has returned."
His department made the recovery official by removing the eagle from the list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The bird had been reclassified from endangered to threatened in 1995.
Today there are nearly 10,000 mating pairs of bald eagles in the contiguous 48 states, compared to a documented 417 in 1963, when the bird was on the verge of extinction everywhere except in Alaska and Canada where it has continued to thrive.
"After years of careful study, public comment and planning, the Department of Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are confident in the future security of the American bald eagle," said Kempthorne.
He promised that "from this point forward we will work to ensure that the eagle never again needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act."
The eagle, whose decline came during years in which the bird was often targeted by hunters, will still be protected by state statutes and a federal law passed by Congress in 1940 that makes it illegal to kill a bald eagle.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is developing guidelines on how that law will be implemented. It also is developing a permitting system to allow landowners to develop their property and still protect the eagle population.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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"We've been f'n like crazy for generations trying not to become extinct. I tell ya, if you wanna get your *** life going nothing like being put on that endangered list!"
the Endangered Species Act in 1973.
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CBS Article quote:
The bird was listed as endangered in 1967, six years before the Endangered Species Act became law.
Boil eagle until thoroughly cooked. Dice and mix with whole wheat spiral pasta. Mix in chopped celery and onion to taste. Mayonnaise and horseradish to taste. Serve chilled.
Deliciious
It's great to stand on a bridge and watch them soar up and down the river and do their mating dance in the sky.
Not just the bald eagle is living in this part of kansas but a great many birds that have flocked all the way from africa and canada to our area,such as egrets,herons,kingfishers,eastern blue bird,which I spotted in my back yard the other night,boy he sure was pretty.
We can't save everything,cause evolution doesn't work that way. What may florish here today might not florish here in say another 1000 years.
So let mother nature take care of her own and stop humans from over hunting animals,to near extinction.