Eagles need clean streams for their fish diet

From an Article by Gustave Axelson, Cornell Chronicle, March 24, 2021

For the past 50 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been assembling counts of bald eagle nests to track the triumphant recovery of America’s national symbol. But in its new bald eagle population report – tabulated with the help of results using eBird data from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology – the USFWS found many more eagles than previously thought to exist in the Lower 48 states. A lot more.

The latest USFWS Bald Eagle Population Update report estimates more than quadruple the eagle population noted in the 2009 report, or 316,708 eagles across the contiguous United States. The rising number of bald eagles undoubtedly reflects the continuing conservation success story that stretches back to the banning of DDT in 1972. But it also represents a major advance in using citizen-science powered supercomputing to generate better estimates for the eagle population.

“Working with Cornell to integrate data from our aerial surveys with eBird relative abundance data on bald eagles is one of the most impressive ways the we have engaged with citizen science programs to date,” said Jerome Ford, USFWS migratory birds program assistant director. “This critical information was imperative to accurately estimate the bald eagle population in the contiguous United States, and we look forward to working with Cornell in the future.”

In addition, the new USFWS report estimates 71,467 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the Lower 48 states, which is double the number of eagle nests noted in the 2009 report – and many multitudes higher than the all-time recorded low of 417 known eagle nests in 1963. Back then, the popular use of DDT pesticides after World War II had decimated the eagle population. In 1967, the bald eagle received protection under the predecessor to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Then in 1972, the United States banned DDT.

Thanks to legal protections, captive-breeding programs and habitat protection around nests, the bald eagle population rebounded. The USFWS tracked the recovery through counts from states and by aerial surveys every few years, as pilots from the agency’s Migratory Bird Program flew eagle-counting missions over high-density eagle-nesting areas to count numbers of occupied nests.

But for this latest USFWS report, the federal government collaborated for the first time with the Cornell Lab to augment their aerial surveys with a big-data population model generated by eBird.

The computer science that built the eBird model was powered by citizen science. More than 180,000 birders shared data with the Cornell Lab by uploading eBird checklists – tallies of which bird species they saw, and how many, in a single outing. Cornell Lab scientists then developed a model that uses eBird estimates of relative abundance for bald eagles to generate numbers of occupied nesting territories in the areas that USFWS were not able to cover in their aerial surveys.

“One of our main objectives was to see if population modeling based on eBird data would enhance the survey work the Fish and Wildlife Service was already doing,” said Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, assistant director of Cornell Lab’s Center for Avian Population Studies, who supervised the lab’s role in this partnership. “We’re hoping that this will allow the Fish and Wildlife Service to track bald eagle populations over a much wider area in the most cost-effective manner in the future.”

And, Ruiz-Gutierrez says, she also hopes those eagle models continue to show positive momentum. Since the USFWS delisted the bald eagle from the ESA in 2007 – a historic moment for species recovery under the act – the number of known occupied nests in the Lower 48 states has more than doubled, according to the latest report.

“It’s a great American conservation success story,” Cornell Lab Center for Avian Population Studies Senior Director Amanda Rodewald said March 24 at a virtual press conference hosted by the USFWS. She thanked the agency for hosting the event to celebrate eagle recovery, and to celebrate the role of citizen science – the thousands of birders who shared their observations to help build the population models.

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See also: Bald eagle that suffered from lead poisoning, treated, released back to the wilderness, Jeff Morris, WCHS News 8, February 11, 2021

RANDOLPH COUNTY, WV — A bald eagle that was treated after suffering from lead poisoning was released back to the wilderness in Pocahontas County. West Virginia Natural Resources Police report that land owners found the eagle on their property and the bird was unable to fly.

The adult eagle was treated and banded at the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia in Morgantown and returned to the Upper Shavers Fork area of Randolph County for release.

Police said lead poisoning occurs when eagles ingest lead most likely while scavenging carcasses of other wildlife. When ingested, lead has detrimental effects on the nervous and reproductive systems of eagles. Eagles with lead poisoning may have loss of balance, gasping, tremors and an impaired ability to fly. The birds can die within two to three weeks after ingesting lead.

Infrastructure, including stormwater systems, roads, bridges, water treatment plants, and locks and dams, is aging across the nation.   Federal and state programs are having trouble keeping up with necessary maintenance and modernization; regional agencies, such as the 10-county Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, are a sensible solution since ailing infrastructure often causes regional problems (ex. inadequate waste water treatment upstream causes drinking water treatment problems downstream).

With gas drilling activity putting additional strain on infrastructure, it only makes sense for some of the increased state revenue from natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale region to be put toward improvements in roads, water treatment, and other public projects.  Taxes and fees aside, Pennsylvania has been grappling with the question of how to handle royalty payments that are starting to roll in from leases on state parks and forests.  While the governor and others are eying the money for various projects, the U.S. Department of the Interior is scrutinizing whether any of the 175 gas wells on public lands in Pennsylvania are even legal. According to a 1964 federal conservation law, land purchased using money from the Land and Conservation Fund can not be converted to non-recreation use (i.e. a well pad) without prior approval by the National Park Service.  Such approval was never requested nor obtained.  Additionally, if such conversions were made, Pennsylvania would have to “buy land of at least equal value to compensate, and…use any revenue from leases or royalties…for conservation and recreation purposes only.” (Read the full article here…) The Conservation Fund lands issue also applies to West Virginia.

Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, a statewide environmental group, is taking a different approach to protecting public lands: last week they launched a campaign asking natural gas companies to voluntarily pledge not to drill in the state’s parks.  Rather, they ask that the gas resources underlying public land be tapped into using horizontal drilling, with a 300-foot buffer around the park boundary.  The article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentions that the campaign is modeled after a West Virginia law prohibiting drilling in state parks, but it should be noted that the law was only enacted in 1961, and is not retroactive to mineral rights separated before that date.