Eagle Watch

America's national symbol soars back from the brink

An American bald eagle soaring across a blue sky on a 7-foot wingspan is an inspiring sight. “If you see one in flight, it’s something you’ll never forget,” says Mary Rivers, a founder of Eagle Watch Inc., a non-profit organization in Wabasha, Minn., dedicated to educating the public about America’s national symbol.

For a time in our history, though, it was nip and tuck whether the American bald eagle would survive—only government and citizen attention over the last four decades has enabled the magnificent bird to struggle back from the brink of extinction.

In 1782, when the bird was adopted as our national symbol, as many as 100,000 nesting bald eagles lived in the continental United States. But as the human population grew, the bald eagle became a victim of shootings, trapping, poisoning, commercial exploitation, and loss of habitat until its numbers diminished noticeably. The United States government began passing the first laws to save the eagle in 1940. It was barely in time—a 1963 count showed only 417 pairs of bald eagles left in the lower 48 states.

American citizens also got involved. “Private citizens’ contributions have been crucial to the eagle’s recovery,” says Jody Millar, bald eagle recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Conservation success story

As a result of legislation and citizen vigilance, the comeback of the American bald eagle is a conservation success story like no other. Minnesota has been at the forefront of that success, reflecting the pinnacle of a nationwide accomplishment. The state currently boasts one of the largest populations of nesting eagles in the lower 48 states, with a 2002 population believed to exceed 700 pairs. That’s up from a record low of 40 pairs in 1963.

Minnesota’s eagle population has soared to record heights thanks to cooperative efforts of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Raptor Center, a rehabilitation and education facility at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Mary Rivers, 42, was particularly pleased when she saw the eagle returning to the skies over Wabasha (pop. 2,580), where she lives. Her first eagle encounter was during a visit to her grandmother’s home in Alma, Wis., when she was 10 years old. “My aunt came rushing into the house, pulled me outside, and pointed to a very large bird flying upriver. She said, ‘That’s a bald eagle and you will probably never see another one.’”

Her aunt’s prediction did not come true. After Rivers married, she began seeing bald eagles occasionally. “Not in great numbers, but enough to pique my interest,” she recalls.

In the mid-1980s, during a hike with her husband into the backwaters of Wisconsin’s Chippewa River, Rivers saw what appeared to be a fledgling comeback of the majestic birds. “We came across kettles of eagles, unlike I had ever seen in my lifetime,” she recalls. “After I came out of the woods, I described it to a friend as eagles dripping from the trees, there were so many.”

The sight of the lofty birds inspired her to spearhead a grassroots movement that led to the founding of Eagle Watch Inc. in 1989. At that time she was a member of a Chamber of Commerce committee looking for ways to preserve and enhance Wabasha’s non-industrial riverfront. Rivers proposed training a group of volunteers to staff an observation deck along the Mississippi River, where visitors could see and learn about bald eagles.

She knew that people were already traveling to Wabasha to watch eagles, but most were avid bird watchers—members of the National Audubon Society or the Minnesota Ornithological Union. Sometimes, though, a happenstance visitor, after noticing an eagle, would ask, “What’s that big bird in the sky?” Rivers says her idea was to accommodate the avid watchers who came to see eagles, but also to encourage novices and average citizens to come to see the eagles and leave knowing more about them.

So Rivers wrangled contributions for a bus and box lunches for 30 volunteers who traveled to The Raptor Center to learn enough about eagles to teach others. The city donated an unused, city-owned boat landing to Eagle Watch to use as an observation deck.

The observation area opened in 1990, bringing more than 1,000 visitors to the river town to keep an eagle eye on the sky for frequent sightings of the bird that had made such a miraculous comeback. Many brave Minnesota’s harsh weather conditions from November to March—the period when eagles congregate in Wabasha, where flows from the Chippewa River and nearby power plants keep the Mississippi from freezing, providing fishing opportunities for the birds.

National Eagle Center

Eagle Watch’s budget and programs have expanded steadily since 1990. A visitor’s center was opened near the observation deck in 1996 and Congress designated the facility the National Eagle Center in 1999. Plans are underway to build a larger, $3 million facility adjacent to the existing one.

Since 2000, visitors have been able to have a “nose-to-beak” experience at the center with Harriet and Angel, two once-injured, non-releasable eagles unable to survive in the wild. These eagles are now educational ambassadors, teaching those who come to the center or traveling nationwide in converted dog kennels.

When the birds arrived at the center on July 4, 2000, the late federal judge Dan Foley, past national commander for the American Legion, led a ceremony dedicating the eagles to American veterans. “Veterans that come in here cry when they see these birds,” says Mary Beth Garrigan, executive director of the National Eagle Center.

Tourists continue to flock to Wabasha with bird scopes, binoculars, cameras and curiosity. In 2002, more than 22,000 visitors from all 50 states and 60 nations visited Wabasha to catch a glimpse of the majestic bird gliding above the corridor of the upper Mississippi River.

The skies over the river town are a continuing testament to the American bald eagle’s return, Rivers says.

That work has gone a long way to elevate our national symbol to a national treasure. But it’s a treasure that Millar says we can’t take for granted.

“Even as the bald eagle has recovered from its earlier decline, the need for the public to participate in bald eagle management is ongoing,” she says. “If the bald eagle population is going to continue to thrive, everybody is going to have to help. We have to maintain our vigil, be alert, and continue to protect the bald eagle.”

Mary Miller is a freelance writer in Lakeland, Minn.

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