Good News for Endangered Species Efforts

I'll be back after the 4th of July with regular posts.

Today I wanted to spread some good news that's worth celebrating.

If you missed the news this week, the US Department of Interior announced that the bald eagle will be removed from the list of endangered and threatened species - marking the single greatest conservation victory in American history.

Back in the 1960s, there were fewer than 500 breeding pairs of eagles in the lower 48 states. Today there are nearly 10,000. They live in every state in the union. And for the first time in our lifetimes, we have a new reason to celebrate our national symbol on the 4th of July.

My former organization, Environmental Defense, played a significant roll in the eagle's recovery. In the late 60's, a group of men who would later form Environmental Defense demonstrated that the pesticide DDT was entering the food chain and thinning the egg shells of fish-eating raptors like eagles and ospreys. They took the government to court and won, which eventually led to a domestic ban of widespread DDT spraying.

So a special thank you to all the folks at Environmental Defense who got this started and to those that created and defended the law - the Endangered Species Act - that has helped protect the eagle during its comeback.

If you want to read some press about the delisting, here are the Washington Post and AP stories. And check out Environmental Defense's feature page on the eagle's recovery.

See you next week.