In March of this year I was lucky enough to spot a bald eagle soaring overhead while driving East on I-70, near Parachute, CO. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I’d never seen one in the wild before, only in zoos. Less than a month later, I saw a golden eagle in flight three miles south of Windsor, CO. These eagle sightings left a lasting impression in my mind.
It turns out of course that it wasn’t just dumb luck. Eagles have made an astounding comeback. In fact, this past June the Department of the Interior declared the bald eagle is no longer an endangered species, a classification it’s had for almost 40 years. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Division, today there are more than 10,000 mating pairs living in the continental U.S.; only 400 existed in 1963.
The success of our national symbol’s return is a testament to the power of the federal government and propaganda. Without the leverage of the Endangered Species Act, regulation to ban DDT pesticide, and considerable funding spent to protect the famous bald eagle, which appears on so much government-issued Americana, who knows what its fate might have been?
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1 comment:
Again, clean and concise, as well as informational. Good links.
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