With the impending declassification of the national symbol of the United States — the bald eagle — in the news release below, Idaho F & G gives an overview of the current status of eagles in Idaho.
The major factor in the decline of the bald and the golden eagle was the long-lasting, primitive insecticide, DDT, which caused the thinning of the egg shells of eagles and many other birds of prey.
Strong protection of eagle came with the banning of DDT and through the endangered species act. There was strong federal action against the sloppy use of predator poisons after a series of stunning revelations about the mass killing of eagles in Wyoming and Texas by poisons set out by ranchers and their captive federal agency Animal Damage Control (now camouflaged as “Wildlife Services”) and ranchers sport-shooting eagles out of the sky from aircraft.
News Release. Idaho will continue to keep an eye on eagles. Idaho Fish and Game News Release.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
