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US Mint Coin
The nation’s symbol: In 1782, the Second Continental Congress of the United States chose the bald eagle as our national symbol.

 

Adopt a bald eagle or California sea lion.

Visit the Smithsonian's American Indian Museum.

Get kids' activities on black-footed ferrets, river otters, prairie dogs and other North American wildlife.



Adopt a Species

Blad Eagle wiht fish in talons over lake or ocean.
Almost lost, bald eagles have staged a dramatic comeback.

At their lowest point, only 420 nesting pairs of bald eagle could be found in the continental United States. Now, that number exceeds 6,000, and the once-endangered bald eagle has come soaring back.

Poaching and habitat loss hit eagles hard. Then came DDT, a pesticide once widely used in agriculture. DDT got into our waters, and worked its way up the food chain.


cropduster

 

 

A steady diet of DDT-contaminated fish caused bald eagles to lay eggs with shells so thin they cracked before hatching. The eagle population plummeted.


Step 1, Sound the alarm. Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, outlines the dangers of DDT.

 

 

 

In 1962, Rachel Carson, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) scientist and writer, published Silent Spring, outlining the dangers of DDT.


 

Step 2: ban DDT. DDT's use was outlawed in the US in 1972.

 

 

With the perils of DDT outlined in Silent Spring and other studies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of DDT in the United States.


Step 3: Protect bals eagles. Blad Eagle catching a fish.



Bald eagles were among the first animals declared endangered under what would become the Endangered Species Act.

Under the Act, the USFWS began to work on a recovery plan— a strategy to save the species.

 


 

Step 4: Protect habitat.
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Maine
 Clean water and protected habitat are critical for healthy bald eagle populations. Some particularly important nesting areas became National Wildlife Refuges—staging areas for the species’ recovery.

In addition, people began to clean up our waterways. The Clean Water Act and other efforts helped provide bald eagles—and people—with a cleaner, healthier environment.

Step 5: Continued vigilance.



Today, there are more than 6,000 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the continental United States.

The recovery has been so complete, that bald eagles were among the first animals to be upgraded from ”endangered“ to ”threatened.“

The USFWS will continually monitor bald eagle populations to make sure they continue to thrive.

 


The bald eagle’s comeback is a conservation success story!


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