Idaho Will Continue to Keep an Eye on Eagles

In the spring of 1979, biologists Karen Steenhof, Wayne Melquist and Rich Howard set out on the first formal survey of nesting bald eagles in Idaho. They found 11 pairs, eight of which produced young, in all of Idaho. The most recent survey in 2006, documented 216 occupied bald eagle territories in the state. Across the country, the bird has recovered from a few hundred breeding pairs in the 1970s to nearly 10,000 pairs today. On Thursday, June 28, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced the removal of the bald eagle from the endangered species list. The announcement becomes official 30 days after it is 1 in the Federal Register. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has played an active role in that recovery. Fish and Game biologists, including Melquist and Dick Norell, have worked on and coordinated the annual eagle monitoring in Idaho since 1979. Howard, now a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, coordinated that first survey with the help of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff. Steenhof, then a biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, began coordinating the midwinter bald eagle survey in Idaho in 1980. She took on the national midwinter survey for the U.S. Geological Survey in 1992, and continues to be involved with eagle monitoring. Melquist, also now retired, was the nongame program manager at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. The recovery effort that culminated in Thursday's announcement was at least partly inspired by Rachael Carson, a former Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and author of "Silent Spring," the 1962 book about the devastating effects that pesticides, especially DDT, were having on birds. The bald eagle was first protected by the Bald Eagle Protection Act in 1940, which banned shooting eagles. The eagle population began to recover, but with the increased use of DDT after WWII, eagle numbers plummeted. The general use of DDT was banned in December 1972, and the eagle was listed as endangered in February 1978. Since then the bald eagle has been on a long, slow path to recovery. "Life does persist when the door is left open," Howard said in an e-mail Thursday, June 28. "We could have all done more for this species, but it surprised us in many ways." Monitoring has continued since 1979 in Idaho and across the country. Today, Idaho Fish and Game is the lead agency for continued monitoring of eagle nest occupancy and productivity, said Rex Sallabanks, Idaho Fish and Game nongame bird biologist who has coordinated Fish and Game's eagle monitoring in most of Idaho over the past five years. The monitoring effort begins in March, when biologists visit all known active territories for bald eagles in all parts of the state to identify those that are occupied by potentially breeding pairs. They return in late May or early June to check whether the females are sitting on eggs, and again in late June or early July when the young should be fledging. The three core areas with the bulk of the eagle population in Idaho are in the Panhandle, the Upper Snake and the Cascade Reservoir-Payette River system. Biologists are finding relatively stable nesting success, which is an index of the health of the eagle population. "We feel it's important to continue to monitor at this level of intensity," Sallabanks said. One thing the level of monitoring has found is a gradual decline in the success rate of eagle nests over the past four years. The failure rate in 2006 was the highest it has been in the past 17 years, he said. The cause is still not known, but weather and heavy metal environmental contamination may be factors. Monitoring nesting success may alert biologists to new problems that may not show up for many years in simple occupancy counts. Bald eagles normally live 10 to 15 years in the wild; some may live as much as 30 years. Though the bird still is protected under the Bald Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, there is much concern about the loss of critical nesting and roosting habitat. In response to such concerns, the Fish and Wildlife Service's delisting package includes a post-delisting monitoring program and voluntary guideline for managing bald eagles and their habitat. Idaho intends to continue to monitor the bird as intensively as resources allow. In addition to the work of Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists, monitoring over the years also has included the efforts of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service biologists and non-governmental organizations, such as the Teton Regional Land Trust in eastern Idaho. The delisting announced Thursday was welcomed by many of those biologists and individuals. Howard credits state and federal agencies, private landowners and individuals who helped monitor nesting and wintering bald eagles, provided nest site protection and worked to reduce the use of DDT. "Who would have thought that a productive pair would be nesting at Barber Pool Conservation Area in east Boise," Howard said. "They fledged two young just eight days ago."