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Bald Eagles' populations recovering

By tfk on January 12, 2007.

Bald Eagle to Be Taken Off Endangered List:

Seven years after the U.S. government moved to take the bald eagle off the endangered species list, the Bush administration intends to complete the step by February…

The delisting, supported by mainstream environmental groups, would represent a formal declaration that the eagle population has sufficiently rebounded, increasing more than 15-fold since its 1963 nadir to more than 7,000 nesting pairs.

Bald eagles were hurt badly by DDT, and continue to be at risk from mercury pollution, which concentrates in the fish that they eat.

As it happens, the eagles are protected by other laws which means that delisting them will probably make no change in how landowners and wildlife managers will have to think about bald eagle populations.

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