The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is a United States federal law that protects two species of eagle.

The bald eagle was chosen as a national symbol of the United States by the Continental Congress in 1782. It received legal protection through the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940. This law was later updated in 1962 to also protect the golden eagle. Since its creation, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act has been changed several times. It currently prevents anyone, without a permit from the Secretary of the Interior, from "taking" bald eagles. "Taking" includes harming, capturing, or disturbing the birds, as well as removing their parts, nests, or eggs. The law also makes it illegal to take, own, sell, buy, trade, transport, export, or import bald or golden eagles, whether alive or dead, or any part, nest, or egg of these birds.

The goal of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is to prevent actions that could harm bald and golden eagles. These actions include: 1) harming an eagle, 2) interfering with its normal life, such as its home, nesting, or feeding, or 3) causing an eagle to abandon its nest. Eagle feathers have been used in clothing, art, and jewelry. Possessing, trading, or selling bald eagle feathers is against the law unless a permit is obtained. The structure of this law is similar to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The importance of the bald and golden eagle

The bald eagle has inspired millions of Americans since June 20, 1782. American Eagle Day was created to help the bird recover and return to health. On June 28, 2007, the Department of the Interior removed the bald eagle from the list of endangered and threatened species. These birds are now a national symbol of the United States. The Second Constitutional Congress chose the bald eagle as the emblem on the Great Seal of the United States. Some people disagreed with this choice. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers, said, "I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as our national bird. He is not a good example of behavior and is very afraid." He believed a wild turkey would have been better because it shows courage. In contrast, John F. Kennedy said, "The Founding Fathers made a good choice by selecting the bald eagle. Its strong beauty and independent nature well represent the strength and freedom of America."

The golden eagle is a national symbol in Mexico and many other countries, including Albania, Germany, Austria, and Kazakhstan. It represents values such as grace, power, and the majesty of nature. The Hopi tribe takes young golden eagles, raises them, and offers them in ceremonies when they are grown. In 1986, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave the tribe permission to continue these activities legally. The golden eagle is the largest bird of prey in North America. It has dark brown feathers with lighter golden-brown coloring. It lives in mountainous areas and open spaces with short plants, such as parts of the western United States, Northwestern Europe, Japan, and eastern Siberia. In the western United States, golden eagles are often found in forests, tundra, shrublands, grasslands, coniferous forests, and farmland. These birds live in areas with few people. Their deaths are often caused by habitat loss and attacks by ranchers.

Timeline

• 1782: The Founding Fathers at the Second Continental Congress chose the bald eagle as the symbol of the United States. At that time, the United States had about 100,000 nesting eagles.
• 1921: The magazine Ecology warned that the bald eagle might become extinct.
• 1930: A chemical called Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was first discovered.
• 1940: Congress passed a law called the Bald Eagle Protection Act. This law banned selling, killing, or possessing bald eagles.
• 1950: The bald eagle started to recover from harm caused by humans.
• 1952: Protection for bald eagles was expanded to include Alaska.
• 1962: Congress updated the law to include the golden eagle. The new law, called the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BEPA), protected the birds’ feathers, eggshells, body parts, and nesting trees. It also allowed Native American tribes to use eagle parts for religious purposes.
• 1963: Because of hunting, DDT poisoning, and loss of habitat, the bald eagle was nearly extinct. At that time, only 487 nesting pairs of bald eagles remained in 48 states.
• 1972: The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act was updated again. Penalties for breaking the law increased to a maximum fine of $5,000 and less than one year in prison for a first offense. A second offense could result in a $10,000 fine and up to two years in prison. DDT was banned in the United States, which helped bald eagles begin to recover.
• 1994: President Clinton issued an executive order to address delays in providing eagle parts to Native Americans. He asked agencies to improve the process for obtaining eagle parts.
• 1995: The bald eagle’s status changed from endangered to threatened.
• 1999: The Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) requested that the bald eagle be removed from the endangered and threatened species lists.
• 2007: The FWS and the U.S. removed the bald eagle from the endangered and threatened species lists.

Conflict with culture and industry

The bald and golden eagles and their feathers are very important to many Native American tribes. Eagle feathers are often used as symbols of Native American culture. Native Americans respect eagles because they believe the birds represent qualities like honesty, truth, strength, courage, wisdom, power, and freedom. Since eagles fly higher than any other birds, Native Americans consider them the "Master of the Sky" and believe they are closer to God. It is also believed that eagles carry prayers from the Earth to the Creator of the world. Because of this, receiving or wearing an eagle feather is seen as a great honor in many Native American cultures. Catching an eagle was a difficult task, so only certain people were trained to do it. During ceremonies and dances, many tribes wore eagle feathers in their hair. The number of feathers a person received depended on the task they completed. For example, a Pillager Chippewa tribe gave two feathers to a warrior who scalped an enemy and five feathers to a warrior who captured a wounded enemy on the battlefield.

Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, people can apply for permits to use eagle parts or feathers for religious reasons or lawful activities. In June 2007, bald eagles were taken off the Endangered Species List, but the protection law still applies. Starting in 2009, the law allowed permits for activities like operating power lines and airports. These activities could previously have been considered harmful to eagles, but now they are allowed if the harm is limited and unintentional. "Non-purposeful take" means taking eagles during activities that cannot avoid harming them, even if it is not the main goal of the activity.

The law has sometimes made it harder to build renewable energy projects, like wind farms. Wind turbines can harm eagles and other birds, which could lead to legal problems for the people who operate them, even if they try to reduce harm. In 2011, the US Fish and Wildlife Service released guidelines for the wind energy industry. These guidelines explain how to apply for "incidental take" permits, which help avoid the law's penalties while allowing wind energy projects to continue.

Decline of the bald and golden eagle population

DDT, a chemical used as an insecticide in the United States from 1940 to 1950 to control malaria, caused the bald eagle population to drop quickly. By 1963, only 487 nesting pairs of bald eagles remained. At this time, DDT had already harmed other bird populations, and public attention grew after Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962. DDT changes how female birds use calcium, making it hard for them to form strong eggshells. This led to more broken eggs during incubation. Dead birds had high levels of DDT stored in their fat and reproductive organs, which may have caused infertility. Small animals also ate plants sprayed with other pesticides, which were then eaten by birds of prey.

More than 100,000 bald eagles were killed in Alaska between 1917 and 1953. During this time, public awareness increased, and many groups worked to protect eagles. The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland began breeding bald eagles in captivity to help increase their numbers. The goal was to raise enough eagles to reintroduce them to areas where they had disappeared. The center started with one pair and studied their behavior to improve the program. In 1988, the program ended because bald eagles were successfully breeding naturally in the wild.

DDT is a long-lasting chemical that builds up in fish, which are a major food source for bald eagles. This exposed eagles to the toxin. Golden eagles, which eat rabbits, hares, and other small animals, were less affected by DDT because their diet did not include fish. Their eggshells stayed strong and were not broken easily. DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. Other factors, such as toxins like dieldrin and polychlorinated biphenyl, also harmed eagle populations. These chemicals remain in the environment and harm birds. Human activities, such as destroying habitats, disturbing nests, and electrocution from power lines, also contributed to eagle declines. Efforts to make power lines safer for birds have been made by utilities and wildlife experts.

Animal traps on the ground can harm eagles if they are injured by the traps. Injured eagles may starve if their talons are damaged, as they rely on them to hunt. Hunting can also affect eagles. If hunters do not recover their shot game, eagles may eat animals with lead bullets, which can poison them. Many farmers and ranchers shoot eagles they believe threaten livestock, but eagles usually eat dead animals, not live ones.

Protective laws, such as the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the 1972 DDT ban, the 1973 Bald Eagle Endangered Species Act, and the 1992 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program to reduce lead shot use, helped improve the status of bald and golden eagles. These actions moved their status from "endangered" to "threatened."

Bald eagle recovery and conservation

Since 1972, when DDT was banned, bald eagles have had healthy population growth. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service helped this happen by cleaning waterways like lakes and rivers, protecting nesting areas, and returning eagles to their natural homes.

The bald eagle was first suggested for removal from the Endangered Species Act in the 1999 issue of the Federal Register. The final rule to remove the bald eagle from the list was published on July 9, 2007, and took effect on August 8, 2007. At that time, the Fish and Wildlife Service had recorded data on 9,789 breeding pairs of eagles.

In 1983, the Northern States Bald Eagle Recovery Plan was created. This plan, similar to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center plan, aimed to help bald eagles live in self-sustaining populations across the northern United States. The goal was to have 1,200 occupied breeding areas—areas where a pair of eagles lives and nests—spread across at least 16 states by the year 2000. The plan also aimed for each occupied nest to produce one young eagle each year. To reach these goals, the plan included tasks such as studying current populations and habitats, identifying the minimum needs for recovery, protecting and improving habitats, and creating systems to share information. Annual surveys, habitat checks, and management plans were used to improve communication and coordination. Workers focused on improving winter habitats to help eagles survive better.

The purpose of a recovery plan for any species is to help it grow or remove it from the endangered list. Bald eagles have recovered in most parts of the United States. The ban on DDT greatly helped bald and golden eagles recover. Bald eagles are common in New York. In the 1960s, their numbers dropped because of pesticides and habitat loss. In 1976, the Department of Environmental Conservation started a program called the "hacking technique." This method involved taking young eagles from wild nests and raising them in artificial nests in a different area. The eaglets lived in cages until their feathers were fully grown, then were fed and watched by humans. At around 12 to 13 weeks old, they were tested to see if they could fly. Small radio transmitters were placed on their backs to track them. With help from the Fish and Wildlife Service and Cornell University, 23 young eagles were successfully raised and released. These eagles learned to hunt and survive on their own before being released back into the wild. The program was successful for 13 years but ended in 1989 because biologists noticed the eagle population in New York was growing and reproducing well. Funding from the Environmental Quality Bond Act and the Environmental Protection Fund helped eagles grow steadily by using open land and habitats.

Under the Endangered Species Act, states have created a monitoring plan for species that have recovered and been removed from the list. The Fish and Wildlife Service requires bald eagles to be monitored continuously for 20 years, with checks every 5 years. States try to count bald eagles and their nesting and living areas each year. The plan aims to collect data from known nest locations and combine it with samples from eagle habitats across the country to estimate the total number of nesting pairs. State agencies closely watch eagle nests to detect changes in their numbers. The goal is to identify a 25% change in the number of occupied nests nationwide every 5 years with an 80% chance of noticing such changes. At least 200 habitat areas must be checked across the country, focusing on regions with many eagle nests. Factors like weather, habitat changes, population cycles, pollution, and reproduction rates will be considered if eagle numbers drop. If needed, more research, longer monitoring, or federal protection will be used again. The bald eagle’s recovery is a successful example of conservation efforts. This plan helps keep the eagle population safe from harm.

Table 1 shows how the bald eagle population in the lower 48 states is divided into five recovery regions.

Penalty

The criminal penalty rule was changed from a maximum fine of $500 and six months in prison to a maximum fine of $5,000 and one year in prison. For a second offense, the penalty was increased to a $10,000 fine and two years in prison. The highest amount for a misdemeanor offense was raised to $100,000 under the Criminal Fines and Improvement Act of 1987. Additionally, a person convicted of a felony will be fined $250,000. For organizations, the fines are $200,000 for a misdemeanor and $500,000 for a felony.

A civil penalty rule was added, stating that anyone who takes, owns, moves, sells, trades, or buys any dead or alive bald or golden eagles will be fined $5,000 for each violation. A person who violates or disturbs any eagle egg or nest will also be fined under the civil penalty act. The law allowed people to take, own, or move bald and golden eagles in areas where the eagles were harming animals or livestock.

Major code sections

Table 1: Key Parts of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Officially Recorded in 16 U.S.C. 668-668d)

Permits

In 2007, bald eagles were removed from the endangered species list because their numbers had grown, except in the Sonoran Desert, where their population still faces risks. After they were no longer endangered, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) created a permit program to allow limited, non-purposeful taking of bald and golden eagles. The policy for these permits is created by the Division of Migratory Bird Management, and permits are given by the Regional Bird Permit Offices. Permits are provided to people who want to keep eagles for legal activities or to those who need to disturb an eagle's nest for lawful reasons, such as human or bird safety. Permits depend on the activity being legal and meeting specific conditions. Activities that qualify for a permit include falconry (only for golden eagles), raptor propagation, scientific collection, Native American religious purposes, removing eagles that cause problems, taxidermy, and waterfowl sale and disposal. Other special purposes, such as rehabilitation, education, migratory bird propagation, and salvage, may also apply for a permit. Activities that are not allowed, such as selling, buying, trading, or importing eagles, their feathers, or parts, cannot receive a permit.

In October 2010, the FWS started a program allowing Native Americans to get non-eagle feathers from two approved locations. These are the Comanche Nation Ethno-Ornithological Initiative (SIA) in Cyril, Oklahoma, and the Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona. Both locations signed agreements with the FWS to collect and give feathers, carcasses, and parts to federally enrolled Native Americans.

A permit is needed if an eagle nest creates a safety risk or conflicts with certain activities. The permit allows the removal or relocation of nests in these situations: 1) if the nest is active or inactive and poses an emergency risk to humans or eagles, 2) if an inactive nest blocks man-made structures, 3) if removing an inactive nest benefits eagles, or 4) if removing an inactive nest protects public health or safety.

A scientific collecting permit is required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. This permit is for people studying bald and golden eagles. It allows them to take, transport, or keep eagles and collect feathers for activities not covered by other permits. The rules state that eagle items can only be temporarily moved in and out of the United States. Ownership cannot change, and the items must be returned to the original sender after the project ends. Applications for permits involving other CITES or Migratory Bird Treaty Act species can be added to the form. Processing these applications can take up to 90 days.

A permit allows Native American tribes to legally keep live bald or golden eagles for religious purposes. To qualify, tribes must be registered with the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Federal Eagle Aviary is a facility that houses non-releasable eagles for Native American religious use. This permit helps provide feathers through natural shedding. However, direct contact with live eagles is limited. A Caretaker, who must be at least 18 years old and have 300 hours of experience in eagle handling over two years, is responsible for the eagles. Experience should include training, capturing, restraining, handling, and transporting eagles. Daily care, such as feeding and medical care, is also required. Some experience can be gained through courses on handling migratory birds.

Guidelines for caging eagles are provided to ensure safe and healthy living conditions. Non-flighted eagles need a minimum enclosure of 12 feet long by 10 feet wide by 9 feet high, while flighted eagles require 40 feet long by 10 feet wide by 9 feet high. Records of eagle acquisition, veterinary care, and disposal must be kept for each calendar year. These records and cage conditions can be inspected by authorized agents at any time. An annual report must be sent to the Regional Migratory Bird Permit Office by January 31 each year.

A permit allows people to obtain bald and golden eagles, their parts, eggs, and nests for educational purposes. Museums, scientific societies, and zoological parks that are open to the public and operate as government services or non-profit organizations are eligible for this permit.

United States District Court for the District of Missouri

On March 27, 1972, Richard L. Hetzel was charged with breaking the Bald Eagle Act. He removed the legs and talons from a dead bald eagle he found on a beaver dam in the Squaw National Wildlife Refuge and kept the parts to give to a Boy Scout group. The court found no proof that Hetzel intentionally broke the law and fined him one dollar. Hetzel appealed the case, arguing that his actions happened before the 1972 law changes. The court agreed, stating that he was not punished because the law had changed. The court also noted that many boys had obtained eagle feathers without facing criminal charges. It ruled that Hetzel did not intentionally break the law and overturned his conviction and fine.

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

On June 9, 1998, the United States filed charges against the Moon Lake Electric Association, Inc., for killing several migratory birds, including eagles. In 1997, Moon Lake had seven violations of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA) and six violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). This included killing 12 golden eagles, 4 ferruginous hawks, and 1 great horned owl. The government claimed Moon Lake failed to install simple equipment on 2,450 power poles, causing the injury of 38 birds of prey over 29 months. Moon Lake argued that the laws did not apply to accidental deaths and that the laws only punish intentional harm through hunting or poaching. The court dismissed the case, concluding that the laws did not cover this situation. Later, Moon Lake pleaded guilty to multiple misdemeanors and was fined $100,000. It also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the FWS to prevent future bird deaths.

Other laws

The bald eagle is also protected by the following laws:

• Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918
• Endangered Species Act
• Lacey Act Amendments of 1981