On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Kelly Mcallister wrote:

> ...one area stood out as the exception. The bald eagle population in
> Arizona, New Mexico, the southeast corner of California within 10 miles
> of the Colorado River, and those portions of Texas and Oklahoma that are
> west of the 100th meridian. This population was reported to be isolated
> and suffering from low survival rates. In this area, the bald eagle was
> proposed to remain as endangered.

Troubled by uncertainty as to what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did
with the proposed downlisting of the bald eagle, I did a little Web surfing
last night and found the final rule that was published in the Federal Register.

All bald eagles in the lower 48 states are now "threatened" under the
provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act. This includes the eagles
in the southwestern United States (Arizona and New Mexico for instance). After
the publication of the initial proposal to keep these eagles as "endangered",
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obtained substantial information that
showed that bald eagles breeding in this desert environment are not isolated
and are part of a broadly distributed population. A nestling banded in east
Texas, for example, grew up and nested in Arizona.

So, the unsettling trafficking in eagles in this part of the world may still
be responsible for the observed high mortality rates in this region, however,
this is not reflected in any listing status above and beyond what exists for
all bald eagles in the lower 48 states.

Kelly McAllister