Today in History—June 28: A Milestone Moment for Bald Eagles

This day in 2007 represented a rare conservation victory: Bald eagles were removed from the endangered species list, capping one of the most dramatic wildlife comebacks in history.

Just decades earlier, only 417 nesting pairs remained in the lower 48 states.

At a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial on this day, the secretary of the interior made the historic announcement. Bald eagles would remain protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but they no longer required the extraordinary safeguards of the Endangered Species Act.

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Back when Ben Franklin put pen to paper and summarized his feelings about the bald eagle—an animal he was very much not fond of—they were everywhere. They ranged from Alaska to Florida, across much of North America.

Over the years, however, the birds came to be seen as a threat to livestock. This is mostly false: Bald eagles are scavengers and opportunistic hunters, far more likely to eat roadkill than carry off a cow.

Still, the government put a price on their feathered heads. This, combined with habitat loss, led to a drop in population. Conservationists sounded the alarm, leading to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940. This made it illegal to possess or kill eagles, their eggs, or their nests without a permit.

This might have been enough—if the now-banned pesticide DDT had not entered the picture after World War II.

DDT, sprayed nearly ubiquitously to control mosquitoes and agricultural pests, made its way into waterways, where it made its way into fish. Fish made their way into eagles. Even if it didn’t kill the adult birds, it caused females to lay eggs with shells so thin they cracked under the weight of the parents.

If 2007 was a win, then 1963 was rock bottom, with just over 400 breeding pairs of bald eagles recorded in the lower 48. When the Endangered Species Act came into being in 1973, bald eagles were an early beneficiary. The law protected the birds and their habitat, required federal agencies to comply, and funded recovery efforts.

Combined with the 1972 ban on DDT, it worked. In 1995 the species’ status was reclassified as threatened, with some 4,500 pairs counted. In 2007 the pairs increased to about 10,000.

And the bald eagle survived to become America’s official national bird in 2024. (Our apologies to Mr. Franklin.)

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