Eagle nearly off endangered list

[TexasStooge]

WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) – The American bald eagle, after battling back from the threat of extinction because of habitat loss and the pesticide DDT, took another step Monday toward coming off the endangered species list.

The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service issued draft voluntary guidelines spelling out how landowners, land managers and others should protect the bird once it is no longer safeguarded by the 1973 law.

It also proposed prohibitions on disturbing the bald eagle, which could include anything that would disrupt its breeding, feeding or sheltering, or cause injury, death or nest abandonment.

The Clinton administration proposed removing the bald eagle from the endangered species list in 1999. But the process has taken far longer than the typical year, partly because updated counts are required from each of the states, and some of those have their own rules that add to the red tape.

Officials said Monday's action could help get the bald eagle off the endangered species list within a year or so.

"Should the eagle be delisted, we expect that the public will notice little change in how eagles are managed and protected," said H. Dale Hall, the Fish and Wildlife Service's director. He said there are at least 7,066 known nesting pairs in the continental U.S.

The bald eagle's territory stretches over much of North America. Tens of thousands live in Alaska and Canada, where their existence was never imperiled.

However, 43 years ago, there were just 417 known nesting pairs in the lower 48 states, mainly because of the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides that weakened the bald eagle's eggshells and reduced its birth rate.

[O Town]

It used to be a rare sight that we see one around, now hubby and I spot them quite frequently. Good news for our countrys beautiful bird.

[Stephanie]

Indeed! They are magnificent birds!

[CentralFlGal]

This is good to hear! I think these birds are majestic and simply gorgeous, even more so since having one "buzz" my head in Cocoa Beach, Florida. We all initially denied the fact that it could actually be a bald eagle (who learned quickly that whoever's surf-fishing will eventually toss a scrap or two in his direction), but here is a site dedicated to him:

Cocoa Beach Bald Eagle

*edited to play with linking URLs since reading the thread on how to do it

[arkess7]

That is great news!!!!!!!! They are such beautiful birds!

[jax]

if they come off the list.... can we hunt them again?

[fwbbreeze]

if they come off the list.... can we hunt them again?

I highly doubt it. Its been illegal to hunt them since 1940.

"In 1940, the Bald Eagle Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 668) was passed. This law prohibits the take, possession, sale, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, of any bald eagle, alive or dead, including any part, nest, or egg, unless allowed by permit. Take includes pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, or molest or disturb."


The only possible way the hunting of Bald Eagles might be allowed is if their population became so large they posed a danger to themselves from disease.

fwbbreeze

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/fr95580.html

[O Town]

if they come off the list.... can we hunt them again?

Oooooh brother.