Subject: Bald Eagles
Date: Dec 15 15:46:33 1994
From: "Gates, Bryan" - BGATES at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca


Michael Price's note on the concentration of Bald Eagles in the Harrison Bay
area of British Columbia brings to mind a sad part of our wildlife
management history.

As a young Regional Wildlife Biologist for the southwest mainland of BC in
the mid 60's, I surveyed the Harrison estuary area one December
with the then Game Warden, and oldtimer and ex-member of the British Columbia
Police Force...before the RCMP took over that role. As we watched 30 or 40
Bald Eagles on the Harrison-Chehalis estuary (an astonishing number in those
days), he recalled how, in one December less than a decade earlier, he had
shot exactly 100 Bald Eagles from the spot where we stood.

The old Game Warden - a good friend and a bush-wise man - has long since
passed on, so he cannot defend himself. Let me try.

His actions were not out of hatred or anger. Instead, they were out of the
mis-guided principles of the day. He was simply doing his job! Up to the
early 50's, predators were still recognized by many as competitors of
man...as vermin...as wanton killers and consumers of things that rightfully
were man's. No matter that the eagles were feeding on "kelts" -- dying,
spawned-out salmon that had already passed their genetic material on to the
next generation, and whose protein might as well be taken up to create new
eagles as to create some inconspicuous organism in the estuaring muds. No
matter that Bald Eagles rarely take young sheep or cattle or fawns or
grouse. It was a policy that shooting, poisoning and trapping of wolves,
coyotes, hawks, eagles and owls was a common form of "game management", even
as recently as 40 years ago.

Thankfully, our collective knowledge and environmental ethics have changed,
although I suppose we still kill Bald Eagles with our powerlines, pesticides
and chainsaws, and with ingested lead shot. And, thankfully, a recovery has
occurred...at the Harrison and at many others salmon rivers in the Pacific
Northwest.

This is not meant to be a blight on British Columbia and its early
conservation programs. After all, I was part of the programs then and still
am today. I suspect that similar events occurred well into the 50's in
Washington, Oregon, Alaska, etc. Perhaps there are some "tweeters" out there
who can recall such happenings and who are happy to see that we are all a
little wiser now -- although not overly so.

Bryan Gates
bgates at ASSESSMENT.ENV.GOV.BC.CA
Or at Victoria Rare Bird Alert (604)
592-3381