| Sometime around 1970, my dad and I paddled an aluminum johnboat up a shallow creek near Flamingo at the bottom of Florida’s mainland. Birds were scarce and getting more so, especially wading birds. As we moved into a wide lagoon, dad touched my shoulder and pointed about 45-degrees upward.
“That’s a bald eagle,” he whispered. At the time, I couldn’t tell an osprey from an oriole, but I nodded reverently. Dad added that, sadly, it may be the last bald eagle he or I see in Florida.
For a while I thought he might be right. It would be another 10 years before I witnessed another one. But starting in the late 1980s, it became nothing unusual to go by a noted bald eagle’s roost and see it returning the gaze. In that regard, dad would agree it's a good thing his prediction was wrong.
Nowadays, it’s not an uncommon sight to enjoy the soaring wingtips of a bald eagle throughout many regions of Florida. And considering the challenges that our fish and wildlife managers face, a giant salute goes out to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). News that the bald eagle recovery continues can only be good for anyone truly appreciative of a job well done and an animal that symbolizes our country.
Says Rodney Barreto, Chair of the FWC, “The bald eagle is an icon of imperiled species protection, and conservation efforts for the species have been a success story that reflects great credit on agencies and people who worked tirelessly to make it happen.”
Just weeks ago, the FWC approved a final bald eagle management plan and removed the bald eagle from the imperiled species list, following in the footsteps last August when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did the same on the federal list.
According to the FWC’s bald eagle management plan leader Robin Boughton, the comeback of the bird has been a success story not all over the United States, but in Florida in particular. “Surveys found only 88 active nests in Florida when monitoring began in 1973,” Boughton said. “In 2007, more than 1,100 active nests were counted. That’s a tremendous increase.”
The bald eagle management plan will serve as a conservation blueprint to ensure the eagle continues to thrive in Florida. The Commission also approved a bald eagle rule and a permitting framework that will continue to protect the bald eagle in Florida.
The continued management plan calls for land management, habitat acquisition and the continued monitoring of eagle nests and territories. Bald eagles will remain protected, of course, and the populations are expected to continue to increase. And that suits anyone just dandy who loves the outdoors. |
