SEQUIM – Mixed emotions will greet the bald eagle’s expected removal from federal Endangered Species Act protection today.
“I’m thrilled that the numbers are way up,” said Jaye Moore of the Northwest Raptor Center, “but a little apprehensive.
“I hope it doesn’t open the eagles up to getting shot.”
Moore nurses raptors – birds of prey – back to health at the center, 1051 W. Oak Court.
“I deal with injured bald eagles all the time,” she said Wednesday, “and we’re still seeing gunshot wounds. So, it makes me a little nervous.
“I hope I’m wrong.”
The bald eagle, once near extinction in the Lower 48 states, now numbers 10,000 nesting pairs across the country, government biologists announced.
While the national birds no longer will be listed as threatened, most regulations that protect them will remain in effect.
“Their habitat, nest trees, perch trees, still are going to be protected – always will be – but their numbers have come way back,” Moore said.
