Perspective: Respecting our national symbol

A Times Editorial

Respecting our national symbol

Shining through the dark clouds of recent environmental setbacks is a ray of hope. The bald eagle has made a successful comeback in the United States. By 1963, the bald eagle population had declined to only 417 breeding pairs in the 48 contiguous states. Today, nearly 6,000 eagle pairs produce young, and if Alaska and Canada are included, bald eagles number about 100,000.

We haven't always treated bald eagles with the respect a national symbol deserves. Alaskan fishermen once considered bald eagles rivals for the salmon supply and killed them by the tens of thousands. DDT poisoning made the shells of eagle eggs so thin they cracked before the eaglets could hatch. And loss of eagle habitat for breeding and food supply began when Europeans showed up in North America and remains a threat today.

The bald eagle was able to recover because DDT was banned and the bird gained protection under the Endangered Species Act. Its status improved from "endangered" to "threatened" in 1994, and now bald eagles are about to graduate off the list of species protected by the act, one of the few animals to achieve such success. But is delisting a good idea? "It's a success story that could go bad in a short time," said Stephen Nesbitt, a biological administrator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The continuing threat to bald eagles is the loss of habitat, and Florida will be one of the most important tests. Florida has more bald eagles -- nearly 3,000 last year -- than any state other than Alaska. Even densely populated Pinellas County had seven successful bald eagle nests that produced 13 eaglets last year. But more than 75 percent of nests in Florida are on private land that could come under development pressure.

When bald eagles are no longer listed under the Endangered Species Act, they still will be protected by the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940, which makes it illegal to harm bald eagles or destroy their nests. But that act doesn't include clearly stated protection of eagle habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delayed delisting the bald eagle while it searches for a way to ensure that eagles will have space to build nests. The agency is wise to work out that important detail before removing the eagle's protection.

In Florida, state government and every resident will have to play a part in ensuring that bald eagles don't return to the endangered species list. "What we have to do is provide a small accommodation for (bald eagles') basic needs so they have habitat," Nesbitt said. That means leaving an undeveloped buffer zone around active nests and maintaining the health of estuaries, the source of food for eagles. Soon enough we will learn if we are capable of coexisting with our national symbol.