The national bird of the United States of America is the Bald Eagle. Interestingly, the Bald Eagle may be seen both a symbol of our country’s strength and a representation of its weakness. Its manifestation of American strength is obvious. Photos of the magnificent animal reverberate with power – the tremendous wings, spanning nearly eight feet, the vise-like talons, able to grasp and carry its prey great distances, and the unblinking, penetrating, purposeful gaze, as the bird scans the horizon. Its profile is not unlike that of our space shuttle – the machine that has helped make us, like the eagle itself, master of the sky. How appropriate that the touchdown on the moon by the American astronauts was confirmed with the words “The eagle has landed.”
And the weakness it represents? Only in recent years has the Bald Eagle increased in numbers, after significant, continuing losses beginning in the 1940’s raised a very legitimate concern that this majestic bird might become extinct. For many years, these beautiful creatures were hunted for sport – but as unfortunate as that was in and of itself, that wasn’t the primary issue. Finally, research on dead birds led scientists to the discovery that eagles were ingesting high levels of chemicals found in DDT and other pesticides in use at that time. The pesticides were being washed into our rivers, where they were being absorbed by the salmon on which the eagles feed. Interestingly, the chemicals weren’t killing the adult eagles. Instead, they were causing the shells of eagle eggs to be dangerously thin, rupturing at the slightest bump or pressure. As large numbers of eagle eggs failed to result in eagle chicks, the eagle population rapidly dwindled.
Fortunately, the cause was found, and officials moved to resolve the situation. The Bald Eagle was declared “endangered” in 1967. Then with the banning of DDT and similar pesticides in 1972, the eagle population began to take a positive turn. By 1995, the designation was changed to “threatened,” and in 2007the Bald Eagle was removed from the list of threatened or endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Thanks to the work of a number of environmental groups and governmental agencies, there are currently just over 7,000 nesting pairs of Bald Eagles in North America. These birds are now protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
But the “strong and weak” metaphor remains valid. Clearly, our ability to invent and create products and materials that improve our American –and the world’s – standard of living is a tremendous strength. American ingenuity has enabled us to accomplish the unimaginable in many areas and in many ways. But at the same time, we have done so with reckless disregard for our environment and its inhabitants. Our tendency to embrace short-term advantages without adequately testing for negative consequences in the long term is a weakness with which we are only beginning to come to terms. Finally, though, it does appear that after years of a “progress at any price” philosophy, we have decided that the elimination of native species is too steep a price.
