The Eagles Have Landed

The Eagles Have Landed concerns bald eagles and their removal from the endangered species list.

Not long ago, bald eagles in the contiguous 48 states had dwindled to a relative handful. They'd become victims of habitat lost to agriculture and development, lead poisoning from buckshot and fishing sinkers ingested through the birds and fish they ate, and the chemicals of modern life - mercury, PCBs, dioxin, and especially DDT, which made eggshells thin and weak. Their numbers had plummeted from an estimated 100,000 during the American Revolution to fewer than 1,000.
But over the past 40 years landmark legislation and treaties, a captive breeding program, and habitat conservation have brought the bald eagle back from the brink. As a result, this year will see its removal from the official endangered species list. "The population has grown astronomically," says Cindy Hoffman of Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group.

I think this story is a perfect example of why environmental protection laws must have teeth and must not be bowled over for the good of corporate wallets.

In the end, that local forest, that eagle, that toad, that wetland, that one oak tree are a part of nature that we are also a part of. Go out today for a hike at a local nature center, or to listen to a bird call.

"There's always something going on that's exciting to a naturalist," says Frank Lang, a retired Southern Oregon University biology professor. He comes back again and again - to take in the waterfowl and songbirds that pass through every year, to hear the hawk's whistle and the coyote's yip, to stand in the shifting light of the high desert.
What it comes down to, says Dave Eshbaugh, executive director of Audubon Oregon, is "something that connects people to a feeling they have deep inside themselves, a feeling of connection with wildlife and nature."

Maybe we can get our leaders out for a hike so they realize how we and all nature are connected together. Wouldn't that be great.