Tweeters,

It's late, I'm at home, it's my time, and I want to know your opinion.
They say everyone has one.

Bald eagles were listed as threatened in Washington in 1978. At the time,
114 nesting pairs were known in the state. Habitat loss was considered a
big issue (at the time Washington's human population was growing!!!),
past poisoning and shooting were believed to have reduced bald eagle numbers
well below historical levels, and contaminants (primarily DDT) were thought
to have disrupted successful reproduction here as they had in other parts of
the United States.

At the time, it seemed likely that bald eagles were headed toward the brink
of extinction (or extirpation, if you like).

Regulatory "wanna bes" tried to influence developments on private lands and,
when disagreements were pressed, the stories on the news pointed out the
government's general lack of authority to require a private landowner to
provide wildlife habitat, threatened or not. When Pope and Talbot's
north Camano Island subdivision was planned around a nest site, some newspapers
found a front page story and Senator Diane Woody found an opportunity to
sponsor a bill to protect bald eagle habitat. It passed!!!

For ten plus years, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildife has
negotiated land use agreements around bald eagle nests and communal night
roosts. Over 200 such agreements have been signed, mostly with private
landowners. The legal authority for requiring a private landowner to enter
into these agreements is an administrative rule that starts off by saying that
its goal is to provide for recovery of the bald eagle so that it may be
delisted.

Washington currently has at least 550 nesting pairs of bald eagles. They
have found adequate habitat where many of us thought there was none. There
are even 3, maybe 4 pairs, on Lake Washington (a big lake but a very urban
lake). The bald eagle population has grown virtually everywhere on this
continent. Numbers alone now dictate that the population can sustain, in the
short-term, many of the purely local effects of adverse developments,
pollution, maniacs with rifles...

Is the job done? Do we delist now and get on with other business?

Consider the cons. Bald eagles need big trees for nesting and night roosting.
Half of Washington's occupied nesting habitat is within one half mile of the
Puget Sound shoreline, an area where human development proceeds at a rapid
pace. Sixty four percent of all of the nest sites in Washington are on
private land. In the important Puget Sound region, 78% are on private land.
On the lower Columbia River and on Hood Canal bald eagles are reproducing
poorly, possibly too poorly to be self-sustaining (if it weren't for the many
more healthy reproductive areas elsewhere). Contaminants, mostly of unknown
origins, are the cause. Is this phenomenon going to increase in the future...?
decrease...? stay about the same?

The specter of the bald eagle as a species this nation could easily lose has
been raised. Now that the sacrifices have been made, the expenses absorbed,
and the bird restored to good numbers, perhaps its time to loosen up. Let
individuals..., local communities (??) decide how to shoulder the
responsibility for maintaining habitat for this great bird into the distant
future.

What do you think?

Kelly McAllister