This summer we’re celebrating five years of the successful recovery of the bald eagle. In June, 2007 the bald eagle was finally removed from the Endangered Species list after more than 30 years. In 1963, there was just one nesting pair of bald eagles along the entire Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge – a stretch of more than 260 miles of prime bald eagle habitat!
After banning the use of DDT, the federal government listed the bald eagle under the newly created Endangered Species Act. Increased habitat protection and breeding and release programs helped to bring this magnificent bird back from near extinction in the lower 48 states. Today bald eagle populations are once again healthy and even thriving all over the United States. In the state of Minnesota today there are more than 2,300 nesting pairs of bald eagles.
Bald Eagle Day events at the National Eagle Center
All day - Kids get banded like Harriet!
Harriet was banded back in 1981, when she was just an eaglet in the nest. The man who banded Harriet, Ron Eckstein, will be here to talk about banding her and his work in the bald eagle recovery program. All kids 16 and younger get a genuine eagle band with paid admission to the National Eagle Center, June 20th. (While supplies last)
12pm – Meet the Eagles4Kids experts! For the last two years, the National Eagle Center has been the educational partner of some very ambitious 3rd-4th grade students. Mike Lawrence’s class in the Blair-Taylor school district installed a nest camera and blogs about the activities of a bald eagle nest in western Wisconsin. This year, two young eagles are growing fast and are getting ready to fledge. Mr. Lawrence and his students will share some of the highlights from this year’s nesting season and talk about what they’ve learned from eagles.
2pm – Dedicated conservation and wildlife managers like Ron Eckstein were a big part of the remarkable success story of the bald eagle. Ron Eckstein was part of the Wisconsin DNR’s bald eagle recovery program. In fact, Ron was the man who actually banded our very own eagle ambassador, Harriet, back in 1981. Ron Eckstein will tell the story of banding Harriet and his part in the amazing recovery of the bald eagle.
