GRAND FORKS, N.D. _ I drove by a bald eagle nest the other day, and then another and another. It wasn't my intention, as it was actually a route I drive on a pretty regular basis. I've known about all three of the nests for a number of years, and there is only about 40 miles in total distance between them.
Every time I think about it, I contemplate the dramatic change in the eagle population that has taken place over the course of a few decades. I was a North Dakota kid who marveled at just the sight of bald eagle feeding on a carcass in Logan County. Now as a biologist, I'll spend time on the phone with others acknowledging the number of known active bald eagle nests across North Dakota. We'll share mutual admiration for just how far they've come.
Digging through a little history, you'll find an amazing story.
In 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act because of fears the nation's symbol was threatened with extinction. While this ended legal killing of eagles, illegal killing and other factors continued to work against them.
Locally, when the bald eagle was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1978, North Dakota had no known nesting pairs and hadn't for quite some time. Protection under the ESA got the rebound underway, and the bounce-back is almost astonishing.
By 1999 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed taking the eagle completely off the endangered species list. On June 28, 2007, that proposal was granted, and bald eagles were removed from the list of threatened and endangered species.
Today, bald eagle numbers in the lower 48 states have climbed to more than 9,000 nesting pairs. In North Dakota, the number of nesting eagle pairs has risen from zero to more than 200 documented in 2017.
