Bald eagles have made a tremendous comeback due to the help of the Endangered Species Act. The species was literally on the brink of extinction. With the banning of chemicals such as DDT, the bald eagle's story is one of recovery.

But there was one pocket where the National Wildlife Federation knew we could make this story even better. Vermont was the only state in the contiguous United States that lacked breeding bald eagles. In 2003 with the leadership of Senator Jim Jeffords and the hard work of many wildlife groups in Vermont, a three-year bald eagle translocation and education project in the Lake Champlain Basin of Vermont began. By September 2006, a total of 29 eaglets from a variety of wild and captive sources in Maryland, Maine, New York, and Massachusetts were cared for and released from a hack box at the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area. The project continues, with eagle monitoring and education its primary focus.

It is the project's goal to have these eagles become the next generation of breeding eagles, and we expect the first eagles released in 2006 to reach breeding age in 2008.

Contact the National Wildlife Federation's Northeast Natural Resource Center if you live in Vermont and are interested in helping. Our annual Lake Champlain Bald Eagle Survey is conducted primarily by volunteers, and we are always interested in hearing about your Vermont sightings of eagles. Your reports will help us determine where bald eagles are staking their claims in the state.

NWF's Bald Maine Eagle Cam