Government, Environmentalism Save Bald Eagles

Thanks to good government and environmentalism, we have bald eagles:

According to a news release from the Interior Department, bald eagles were once on the brink of extinction, “reaching an all-time low of 417 known nesting pairs in 1963 in the lower 48 states.”

“However, after decades of protection, the banning of the pesticide DDT, and conservation efforts with numerous partners, the bald eagle population has flourished, growing to more than 71,400 nesting pairs,” the release added.

According to scientists from USFWS’s Migratory Bird Program, the bald eagle population has reached an estimated 316,700 individual bald eagles in the lower 48 states, which indicates that the population has climbed rapidly since the previous survey was completed.

“Today’s announcement is truly a historic conservation success story. Announcements like ours today give me hope. I believe that we have the opportunity of a lifetime to protect our environment and our way of life for generations to come. But we will only accomplish great things if we work together,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in a statement [Alina Bykova, “American Bald Eagle Population Continues to Soar,” Native News Online, 2021.03.24].

Of course, here in South Dakota, our state leaders will tell you that the folks best equipped to protect biodiversity are monoculturalist corporate farmers operating in an unfettered free market… which is what almost wiped out bald eagles and several other species in the first place.

But those pesky bald eagles do eat free-range chickens….