POLITICS AND NATURE

The Bald Eagle. Our symbol of courage and wisdom. Ben Franklin did not like the choice of the Bald Eagle as the national bird. He would have preferred the Turkey. Eagle's steal the prey from Ospreys and Ben believed it was a cowardly bird. The turkey was perhaps not the best but it was quite common and it was, in Ben's view, a courageous bird. The Bald Eagle is the only eagle unique to North America. They like to eat salmon and about 1/2 of the total number of them existing live in Alaska. The story of the Bald Eagle was quite nearly a tragic tale but its numbers have come back thanks to efforts aimed at protecting its habitat and reducing the effects of dangerous pesticides such as DDT.

This bird was sitting on a tall tree by our home. Jean arrived after work and got me to get the camera, jump in the truck with her and head back to see if he was still there. He was until I freaked him out and he took off. Every time I see wildlife, especially charismatic birds of prey like our national symbol, I realize how important nature has been in my own life and I ponder over the beauty of creation. In a word, it is very cool. So I decided I had spent enough time on pure politics for a time and should get back to the natural world. I looked up some information on the Bald Eagle to get a sense of how this bird received its special place in our national narrative.

On June 20, 1782, The Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States. It shows what we see in our symbols. If you look on the back of one of the old quarters, you will see the image of the bald eagle with wings spread showing it in all its magnificence. It is also shown on many other national emblems. On the back of the dollar is among the most famous of images. The picture shows the eagle again with his wings spread and in his right talon he grips an olive branch with thirteen leaves. In the other, he holds thirteen arrows. The eagle's head is turned in the direction of the olive branch. The symbolism seems clear, although I didn't find any actual explanation of it. We as a society choose the olive branch of peace but we do have the arrows available if necessary. According to one website, the Wisconsin regiment during the Civil War named "Old Abe" survived 42 battles "relatively unscathed" despite the desire of enemy riflemen to hit the bird www.classbrain.com/artfree/publish/printer_188.shtml.

The Bald Eagle came perilously close to leaving us with just a memory in the past. There are estimates that 300,000 to 500,000 bald eagles flew around in the 1700s. By the 1950s, there were 412 nesting pairs left in the lower 48 states.

These birds need open water with abundant food and old growth trees for nesting. They became endangered through the loss of habitat, shooting them, oil/lead/mercury polluting their food and water. One of the major dangers was DDT, hi-lighted by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962 and starting the modern environmental movement. DDT thins birds' egg shells reducing survival rates.

The U.S. government and Canada got together on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 which protects the Bald Eagle. Then, in 1940, the U.S. enacted the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. In 1967, there was a special act preceding the Endangered Species Act of 1973 which protected the Eagle. Until 1995, the Bald Eagle was "endangered" in 43 of the 48 lower states and it was "threatened" in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Washington and Oregon. In July 1995 the Fish and Wildlife Service lowered the status to "threatened" in all 48. It was taken off the list on June 28, 2007. So you see, federal action works. The Endangered Species Act works. Nature heals herself. People care. By the 1980s, the numbers of Bald Eagles had risen to an estimated 100,000.

I recall laying in a canoe in Florida about fifteen years ago when this giant bald eagle flew directly over my head. It was one of those gorgeous days, warm and calm on the water. It sticks in my memory because of the wonder of the bird. Somewhere, I read a group of Eagles flew over the head of the Revolutionaries during some battle or another and they believed they were spurring them on. I can dig that. The old faith in nature has dimmed over time because we rarely get out of the house nowadays, or the car, or the office, etcetera. You get the picture. When we are lucky enough to spend a time with one of nature's other wonders, we grow in our humanity. And as we watch our national bird fly away, we get a small glimpse into the wonder of it all.

Websites of the Bald Eagle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Eagle

http://www.eagles.org/moreabout.html

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Bald_Eagle.html

http://www.usflag.org/baldeagle.html

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3520id.html