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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2016
Eagle Nature Foundation looks at present bald eagle population status By Terrence N. Ingram with Tony Carton
The bald eagle population in the Midwest has slipped back to a level lower than in the 1960’s when people first became alarmed at the low numbers of bald eagles seen along the Mississippi River. “At that time the cause for the noticeable reduction in population was claimed to be DDT and it was not until after DDT was banned that bald eagle population began to recover,” said Eagle Nature Foundation President and Executive Director Terrence N. Ingram. “However, if DDT were the only cause of the bald eagle’s decline there never should have been such a rapid increase in the bald eagle population after DDT was banned, because it should have taken a while for DDT to work itself out of the environment.” Ingram said he believes the cause of the bald eagle decline was a combination of DDT and actions implemented by US Fish and Wildlife Service “In the 1950’s the bald eagle had a bounty on its head and feet both in Alaska and Texas, and maybe in other states, I don’t know,” said Ingram. “Once the public became alarmed about the decline of the bald eagle, these bounties were quietly lifted. We have been told that Alaska paid for 115,000 eagles being killed costing over $100,000. I believe that is why our Midwinter Bald Eagle Counts were able to document that the bald eagle population was im-
food source and to survive had to move inland to find other food. We have the records to show that many wintering bald eagle communities along the Mississippi gradually declined by first losing their immatures and then gradually losing the adults as the immatures were not surviving to replace those adults that died. It was not long before the whole community would be wiped out.” According to Ingram, the bald
eagle should not have been delisted by US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007. “There were no facts to back up such an action and our organization was strongly opposed to the action at the time,” he said. “Someone high up in the US Fish and Wildlife Service said the bald eagle was going to be delisted and ordered all employees to make the facts fit the story.
He listed several reasons for the action taken by US Fish and Wildlife: The need for a success story fit for consumption by thte general public to show the Endangered Species Act worked. The need to show the world they knew what they were doing with their efforts to bring the bald eagle
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proving before DDT was banned in 1972.” He said some hunters would fly in helicopters and shoot hundreds of eagles in a single day, many of them, bald eagles. “After the alarm was raised about the bald eagle’s decline, this practice was banned, but I would sure like to see someone find the records in both Texas and Alaska of how many bounties were actually paid in the 1950’s for dead bald eagles,” Ingram said. “This is a piece of the puzzle that should be known. A yearly drain on the bald eagle population such as this would gradually have an effect on the total bald eagle population.” The bald eagle population peaked about the year 2000 and then started a gradual decline. Ingram blames that decline on chemicals including glyphosate the main chemical used widely in herbicides which are working their way through the food chain. Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate. It is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crops. “I have been able to document that glyphosate is the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, CCD, in honeybees and I believe it to be one of the main culprits in the loss of our pollinators,” he said. “I believe this is also the reason the bald eagles wintering on the Mississippi River gradually lost their
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