Haliaeetus Leucocephalus

Haliaeetus leucocephalus, the bald eagle, soars effortlessly over the Delaware River Highlands. Birdwatchers and hikers look up in awe trying to explain in words their excitement. The bald eagle lands in its enormous nest, a sanctuary built methodically over weeks, each branch selected by overprotective parents caring for young chicks nearly ready to fledge.

The beauty of this scene has helped our national symbol recover from a not-so-pleasant past, a time when Americans used destructive chemicals that hindered the fragile eagle eggs. Since its early protection in 1940, through the banning of DDT, its endangered status and its de-listing in June of this year, this beautiful bird of prey still needs our help to continue its quest toward an even more thriving success story.

In the Delaware Highlands many people have worked long hours to bring the bald eagle to this nadir. One of those people is Lori Danuff McKean, founder/director of the Eagle Institute, a Barryville, NY-based non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the bald eagle. McKean says the experience she had when she first saw a bald eagle in the wild in the upper Delaware region was similar to the experience thousands still have.

"It's an awesome sight, a moving thing, and if you don't have an affinity for nature it's the thing that could get you hooked," McKean says. "I call it the ah, ha moment. We've been doing this for ten years so tens of thousands of people have had this ah, ha moment where they never thought about water quality or forestry or the environment but when they see the bald eagle in the wild they realize what it's all about."

This realization inspired McKean to get involved. "At the lowest point in the bald eagle's history in our region there was one breeding pair in New York state and one breeding in Pennsylvania which was in the early 1970's," she explains. "The breeding pair in New York was not successfully reproducing."

The overarching problem for the eagle in the early 1970's was the introduction of DDT, a synthetic pesticide, into the bird's ecosystem. "Farmers used DDT, it seeped into the water sources, the fish ate it, the eagles ate the fish but didn't die but the shells of their eggs were too thin and they couldn't incubate them," McKean says.

According to McKean, several things things led to the eagle's recovery. A very ambitious re-introduction program in New York and Pennsylvania, the banning of DDT, conservation of habitats in the Highlands and educating the public about the bird have all combined to create the eagle's success story.

"State wildlife biologists went to Alaska and Canada, places where the bird was not considered endangered, brought back eaglets, and over several years and used a hacking program until they were old enough to fledge," she says. "On top of that the people in New York state voted to pass a bond to set aside twelve thousand acres of habitat for bald eagles in a reservoir system that is adjacent to the upper Delaware. This was not done in Pennsylvania because of financial reasons and because there are different types of state land holdings like state game lands that are adequate to support the eagle population."

Hacking programs introduce eaglets into large three side cages put up in trees in traditional nesting areas. Biologists hand rear them and hand feed them until they are old enough to fledge, then they are re-introduced into the wild.

Another bald eagle expert in the Delaware Highlands is Yoke DiGiorgio, director of the Delaware Valley Eagle Alliance, a non-profit based in Narrowsburg, NY that works to increase awareness and understanding of the bald eagle and promotes conservation. Every January, a month when migrating eagles re-appear in our area, the Alliance sponsors Eaglefest, a festival featuring live bird demonstrations, observation sites, guest lecturers, films, poster auctions and eagle art.

Having immersed herself in the bald eagle for many years, DiGiorgio gets emotional when talking about the bird. She has been working on a wildlife film for the last 18 months, following eagles and observing there every move. "Eagles are fabulous parents," she says. "It's amazing how carefully the parents tread around their chicks. They pull their talons in so as not to hurt the young ones. When it's time to eat they feed the young ones the most tender portions."

According to DiGiorgio, there are now nearly 10,000 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states, up from 417 in 1963. "This was one of the greatest wildlife success stories in the history of this country," she says. "Bald eagle experts look to the new rules and need to monitor them to ensure the continued survival and prosperity of the species."

In her newsletter DiGiorgio's article "Protection After Delisting" quotes Dr. Larry Niles, former chief of endangered and non-game species program, Division of Fish, Game, and Wildlife and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. "Although U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was right to pursue delisting due to the rapid expansion of bald eagle population, delisting is a new national experiment," Niles says. "We have not had much experience in delisting."

Now considered by Niles and other experts a test case, what happens next to the bald eagle will reveal how America acts under the new rules and how those rules are enforced.

Monitoring will be key.

"The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act will now be the primary law protecting the bald and golden eagles," DiGiorgio says. "To ensure that eagles continue to thrive, the Service has announced it will work with state wildlife agencies to monitor eagles for at least five years. Should eagles again need the protection of the ESA, the Service can propose they be "re-listed". While there is cause to celebrate the remarkable recovery of the bald eagle, it is important to note that they are not out of danger. How eagle habitat will be protected in the future and the part we all play in habitat preservation is key to their continued recovery and prosperity."

How eagles are protected also rests on educators like John Serrao. A freelance naturalist who conducts nature walks for the Pocono Environmental Education Center and Skytop Lodge, Serrao is on the frontlines of increasing awareness and educating the public on what it can do to keep this elegant symbol thriving.

"When I take people on the nature walks we often see bald eagles," Serrao says.

"I tell them we are lucky we can see these birds because 20 years ago it would have been a rare thing. It's dramatic, it's a magnificent spectacle. You never get tired of seeing them."

Serrao says the recovery of the bald eagle proves that the Endangered Species Act works.

"I emphasize that this was a very important piece of legislation to enact."

When asked to comment on some recent news reports suggesting that the Endangered Species List itself is endangered, Serrao said he thinks any major problems with this part of the federal government come from a lack of funding from the present administration in Washington. "If we had an administration that was fully committed to backing the environment we wouldn't have problems with funding the Endangered Species program," he adds.

For the record, the Bush administration has added fewer species to the list than any other since the law was enacted in 1973.

What can be done to continue to protect the bald eagle? Perhaps Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring and one of the founders of the American environmental movement, said it best when she declared these words:

"Like the resource it seeks to protect, wildlife conservation must be dynamic, changing as conditions change, seeking always to become more effective. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow."

When haliaeetus leucocephalus flies near us surely our emotions go wild, and hopefully, wild enough to grow seeds of conservation.