Bald eagles come back from the brink

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

A bald eagle has spent the past few weeks plying the Santa Ana and

Los Angeles rivers. This formerly endangered species is a rare

visitor to our area.

This particular eagle has an orange wing tag numbered 13. In its

three years of life, eagle No. 13 has been seen from San Diego to

Oregon. It was tagged as a nestling by the Institute for Wildlife

Studies on Santa Catalina Island in 2001. This group is trying to

reintroduce bald eagles to the Channel Islands where they formerly

nested.

Our founding fathers made the bald eagle our national symbol in

1782. These spectacular birds have a wingspan of six to seven feet,

with pure white heads and tails, dark brown bodies and an imposing

glare.

That appearance of fierceness may be the reason our founding

fathers picked the bald eagle over the wild turkey as our national

symbol. It certainly wasn’t the eagle’s feeding habits. Bald eagles

prefer dead fish or carrion, although they’ll hunt if necessary. They

also will harass ospreys to get them to drop their catch, snatching

the fish from hard-working ospreys in mid-air.

Although there is a small wintering bald eagle population at Big

Bear Lake, a local sighting is rare. The bald eagle on the Santa Ana

River is one of about 16,000 that are now living in the lower 48

states. At the time of the Revolutionary War, there were an estimated

25,000 to 75,000 bald eagles living in what would become the lower 48

states. But with active hunting of eagles during the 1800s, their

numbers began to decline.

Bald eagles first received protection under the Migratory Bird

Treaty Act of 1918 and then under the Bald Eagle Protection Act of

1940 that made it illegal to kill, harass or possess bald eagles. But

that wasn’t protection enough. The worst was yet to come for eagles

and many other birds.

The chemical era in agriculture blossomed after the end of World

War II. DDT became a popular pesticide, and with its use came

reproductive failure for many birds. America was killing its wildlife

with deadly pesticides.

DDT concentrated in birds like eagles, ospreys, peregrine falcons

and pelicans as it moved up the food chain. DDT has hormone-like

effects that interfere with calcium metabolism. Eggshells became

thinner and eggs broke in the nest. The number of nesting bald eagles

plummeted to a mere 450 pairs across the lower 48 states.

Concerned about the effect chemicals were having on wildlife and

humans, Rachel Carson published her book, “Silent Spring,” in 1962,

one of the landmark events of the modern environmental movement.

After Carson warned of the long-term dangers of pesticides, an

outraged public demanded action.

Good things began to happen. The Environmental Protection Agency

was formed in 1970 to safeguard the health of humans and wildlife

alike. In 1972, DDT was outlawed in the U.S. Then in 1973, Congress

passed the Endangered Species Act. This act offered protection to any

listed species that was in imminent danger of, or threatened with,

extinction. Although this law is much maligned by those who are

intent on destroying the natural environment, it has saved many

species from being wiped off the face of earth.

The Fish and Wildlife Service began a captive breeding program of

bald eagles and other endangered raptors. Slowly, the eagle

population began to bounce back. The federal re-introduction program

was discontinued in 1988, but local private efforts continue. Bald

eagle status was downgraded from endangered to merely threatened in

1995. In 1999, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing bald

eagles from the endangered and threatened species list. But due to

public pressure, bald eagles remain listed.

Although banned more than three decades ago, DDT is still

abundantly present in the Southern California environment because one

of the world’s largest producers of DDT was located in Los Angeles

County. An estimated 1,800 tons of DDT washed down sewers and into

the ocean between 1947 and 1971. DDT still remains in 17 square miles

of sediment on the continental shelf off Palos Verdes, which is the

largest known area of DDT contamination in the world.

DDT is a persistent chemical that breaks down very slowly. People

from the Institute for Wildlife Studies still find eagle eggs so thin

that they must take them from the nest to prevent the parents from

crushing them. After incubation, the chicks are reintroduced to the

nest and the parents take over.

DDT is no longer manufactured, but over 700 pesticides are still

registered for use, including insecticides, herbicides and

fungicides, along with rat and bird poisons. We need to stay alert to

the dangers imposed by this ongoing chemical assault on our

environment. The battle isn’t over with the recovery of a few

prominent species that were affected by one chemical.

We are not proposing that all pesticides be eliminated. But we do

advocate additional study and restrictions by the EPA as appropriate.

Many of today’s pesticides block nerve transmission, or act as

endocrine disrupters. These chemicals can affect people by acting on

our nervous or reproductive systems, or by causing cancer.

We urge you to become informed about the dangers of pesticides.

Reduce or eliminate them from your yard. Support organic farmers by

buying organic produce, milk, and eggs. And most importantly, don’t

let the “less government” crowd weaken environmental laws.

Environmental protection isn’t just about saving eagles. It is also

about protecting human health.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].