A Stunning Comeback for a National Symbol

Posted: 20-Jun-2007; Updated: 19-Nov-2008

A generation ago America’s national symbol, the bald eagle, nearly vanished from our skies. A fierce predator with a seven-foot wingspan, the eagle had no defense against DDT, the pesticide Rachel Carson warned about in Silent Spring. Sprayed widely on crops and mosquito breeding areas, DDT was building up in the environment and causing the eggshells of birds of prey to weaken and crack.

Eradicating DDT and creating a landmark law to save the birds

Four scientists set out to rid the country of DDT, and in 1967 they founded the organization that is now Environmental Defense. We spearheaded the campaign for a U.S. ban on DDT and started the bald eagle on the road to recovery. Today, America’s bird has reoccupied its range across the lower 48 states. Compared with 1963, when fewer than 500 pairs were known south of the Canadian border, this year there were more than 9,500 pairs.

Banning DDT was essential for the bald eagle’s survival. But it is the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that has allowed the eagle and many other rare species to flourish. Signed by President Nixon in 1973, the act helped bring the eagle back through urgent recovery actions and protection: Four national wildlife refuges were created, allowing the eagle to safely nest and overwinter; eagles were reintroduced to areas where they had vanished; and penalties for harming the bird were increased.

Other species once close to extinction such as the whooping crane, gray wolf and California sea otter are also making spectacular comebacks thanks to the act. But many more need its help. Threats are multiplying: According to some scientists, species are disappearing at a rate at least 100 times greater than before the modern era. That didn’t stop a group in Congress from launching the most serious assault on the ESA in three decades, claiming the law is unworkable. Environmental Defense fought back in 2006, helping block a bill that, had it been enacted a generation ago, would have made protecting the bald eagle all but impossible.

Using incentives to boost species protection

To strengthen Congressional and landowner support for the act, we encouraged the use of new incentives that have spurred conservation and cut landowners' compliance costs. Our Safe Harbor initiative has inspired private landowners across the country to welcome endangered species on nearly four million acres. In Congress, we gathered experts from 15 scientific organizations -- representing 25,000 scientists and natural resource managers -- and showed how conservation and landowner interests are compatible.

Our wildlife director and ESA attorney Michael Bean points out, “We’re not just defending the law. We’re making it better.” “With a creative approach, Environmental Defense demonstrated how a strong Endangered Species Act benefits both rare species and people,” notes Edward O.Wilson of Harvard University. Our opponents are still attempting to overturn this vital environmental law. But the sight of bald eagles in our skies, whooping cranes in our marshes and California sea otters in our coastal waters is living proof that with powerful laws and sufficient funding, endangered species can recover.