The federal government may soon remove the bald eagle, the national symbol of the United States, from the endangered species list.
Dale Hall, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hailed the comeback of the bald eagle as 'a great national success story' as he told reporters that the bird's de-listing from the protections of the Endangered Species Act would be reopened to public comment.
'This bird has a lot of the public's attention,' Hall added. 'We wanted to make sure we did it right.'
The Fish and Wildlife Service first suggested the removal of the bald eagle from the list of endangered species in 1999 but questions of protection in other laws bogged down the proposal. The wording in the other laws has been strengthened and additional voluntary guidelines will be provided to protect nesting and feeding areas of the bird that appears on American money and the presidential seal.
Environmentalist groups were generally OK with the decision to remove the bald eagle from the list of endangered species.
'The return of our national symbol is a victory for wildlife, a victory for conservation and a victory for the Endangered Species Act,' Doug Inkley, senior science officer for the National Wildlife Federation told Reuters.
In 1963, there were only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the continental U.S. Now, it is estimated there are 7,066 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states.
