The federal government on Friday announced its plan to protect bald eagles after the bird flies off the endangered species list later this month.
The federal plan will use the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to afford continued protections to the big birds that have returned from the brink of extinction over the past 35 years.
That eagles have recovered fully is not in question. Instead, conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and property rights groups have argued over how much eagles can be "disturbed'' after delisting occurs.
Under the federal action Friday, eagles will continue to be protected from human activity that could kill or harm eagles, destroy their nests or damage their eggs. The government also set up new rules for special permits that allow incidental taking of eagles and their nests -- for example, if an eagle built a nest near an airport.
Also announced Friday were a set of National Bald Eagle Management Guidelines giving guidance on how to treat eagles and avoid disturbing them.
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"The bald eagle has rebounded from the brink of extinction to reach population levels that have not been seen since World War II," said H. Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a conference call. "Our overriding concern has been to ensure that bald eagles continue to thrive once they no longer need the protection of the Endangered Species Act and the actions we take will meet that goal."
The process of removing eagles from the Endangered Species Act protections was pushed by property rights groups. They backed a Minnesota landowner who wants to develop seven acres of waterfront land on Sullivan Lake in Morrison County into a subdivision. But the land holds an active eagle nest, and state and federal wildlife officials turned down the development plan.
The landowner filed suit, saying the eagle didn't deserve protection as endangered when its population had recovered. The court essentially agreed, ordering the government to finish de-listing eagles this year, setting June 29 as the deadline. Fish and Wildlife Service officials Friday said they would meet that order.
The Pacific Legal Foundation, which has pushed the effort to remove eagles from federal protections, said the new federal eagle protections remain overly onerous for landowners for an animal that doesn't need special treatment any longer.
Damian Schiff, attorney for the California-based group, called the new federal regulations the "functional equivalent'' of endangered species list protections and said they are an example of the "negative effects of excessive environmental regulation.''
"If the eagle is recovered ... their protections, if anything, should be decreasing,'' Schiff said in a conference call.
Schiff said his group probably will file another federal lawsuit based on the new protections.
Hall said most people want continued protections. The new guidelines are supported by many conservation groups, including the National Wildlife Federation.
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"Court suits will come and go, but our position is to do what's right for the species,'' Hall said. "We believe [eagle protections] are neutral. We believe that they will have very close to the same protections for eagles into the future.''
Through the 1960s, eagles faced peril primarily from the use of the pesticide DDT, which weakened their eggs and virtually halted reproduction. The animals also faced declining habitat for nesting trees, and many still were being shot and poisoned in some parts of the country when the Endangered Species Act went into effect.
The goal for bald eagle recovery was about 5,000 nesting pairs. But the animals have come back better than expected. There are almost 10,000 nesting pairs of bald eagles across the contiguous 48 states, including about 1,400 in Minnesota, the most of any state, and 1,200 in Wisconsin.
Carroll Henderson, nongame wildlife specialist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said eagles have proved more resilient and adaptable than anyone imagined 40 years ago.
"They have proven a lot of us experts wrong," Henderson said in an earlier interview. "We thought they'd only nest in big white pines on clear northern lakes with lots of fish. But we have them nesting all over the state.''
Henderson said eagles have been surprisingly willing to nest in developed areas and take advantage of the deer population and ample car-killed venison to remain well fed in the state even through winter.
"Their ability to adapt and expand suggests delisting is the appropriate thing,'' he said.
The final definition defines "disturb" as "to agitate or bother a bald or golden eagle to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, 1) injury to an eagle, 2) a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior, or 3) nest abandonment, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior."
