Uptick in cutting of bald eagle nest trees as social experiment continues
(http://www.ccbbirds.org/2014/03/22/uptick-cutting-bald-eagle-nest-trees-social-experiment-continues/
)
By Bryan Watts
When bald eagles were removed from the federal list of threatened and
endangered species in June of 2007, the action was both a conservation
milestone and the beginning of a social experiment.
Recovery of the bald eagle population is arguably the greatest conservation
success story in our nation's history and a testament to wildlife law.
However, pulling the population out from under the big stick of the Endangered
Species Act (ESA) for the first time in nearly 40 years comes with an uncertain
amount of risk. Within the Chesapeake Bay, 75% of all bald eagle pairs nest on
private lands suggesting that the future of the population resides with the
public. How private landowners would respond to the removal of ESA protections
in the post-delisting era has been an open question of interest to the
conservation community.
Information compiled from the annual bald eagle survey is beginning to give a
hint as to how the experiment is playing out. The Center for Conservation
Biology has been monitoring eagles and their nests within the Chesapeake Bay
for decades. One of several objectives for this ongoing program is to observe
how eagle pairs fare on private lands. Since removal of eagles from ESA
protection, we have observed a clear uptick in nest trees cut (13 trees since
2007) during logging operations.
Loss of nest trees to logging is not new to the Chesapeake Bay population.
Following his historic survey of bald eagles within the Chesapeake Bay, Bryant
Tyrell reported in 1936 to Richard Pough of the National Audubon Society that
lumbermen were cutting several nest trees per year. He reported that "their
attitude was one of absolute disregard for the eagles". In general, the
lumbermen were not selectively targeting nest trees, but they were cutting
entire forest blocks that contained them. This practice continued and was well
documented by the annual eagle survey during the 1960s and 1970s. By the
1980s, news of the eagle's plight and penalties under federal law were more
widely known, and the number of trees lost to logging declined substantially.
Cutting of bald eagle nest trees continues to be a violation of federal law.
Although the species no longer enjoys ESA protection, both bald and golden
eagles are unique in the United States in having their own federal law (the
Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1941, commonly referred to as the Eagle
Act). Delisting eagles in 2007 effectively initiated a change in the lead
legislation used to prosecute eagle violations from ESA to the Eagle Act.
There has been very little change in the recommended federal management
guidelines pertaining to bald eagles
(http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ecologicalservices/eagle.html).
The recent increase in cutting of nest trees may reflect a broader public
misconception that nests are no longer protected following their delisting.
We, the conservation community, need to be more effective in communicating
landowner responsibilities under federal law.
Michael Wilson
Center for Conservation Biology
College of William and Mary & Virginia Commonwealth University
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
phone: 757-221-1649
fax: 757-221-1650
email: mdwils@xxxxxx
web: www.ccbbirds.org
