Three young bald eagles destined for new homes in Tennessee got an official send-off today from Interior Secretary Don Hodel near the Chesapeake Bay, where the National Symbol is flourishing.
The three birds are among the most recent graduates of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, where eagle chicks are produced at a captive-breeding facility supported by continuing donations from the Du Pont Company. The purpose of the program is to restore bald eagles in States where their populations remain low. A total of eight eaglets form this year's class, and they are headed for release sites in North Carolina (two birds), New Jersey (two birds), and Pennsylvania (one bird),.in addition to west Tennessee's "Land Between the Lakes" region.
Hodel brought the trio to Remington Farms, a Du Pont-managed wildlife demonstration area near Chestertown, Maryland, where an active eagle nest holding two fledgling bald eagles is located. Nearby, on private property, another eagle pair has produced four young this season. Biologists believe this nest is one of the few instances in the Lower 48 States where so many chicks have been hatched at one time.
Du Pont Chairman Richard E. Heckert announced that the company will contribute an additional $50,000 to the Patuxent program in 1986, bringing to $200,000 the total Du Pont has contributed to bald eagle recovery since 1983.
Hodel praised Du Pont's record of support for endangered species such as the bald eagle, in keeping with the spirit of the Reagan Administration's "Take Pride in America" campaign to foster a renewed sense of responsibility for the protection of natural resources by private citizens and major corporations alike. "Du Pont has been showing its pride in America's wildlife legacy for years. It is the Fish and Wildlife Service's longest continuing financial partner in wildife conservation projects of this type, and the fruits of that relationship are what you see soaring above you in the skies overhead," Hodel said.
Hodel contrasted the increasing eagle population in the Chesapeake Bay region with the continuing need for human help to restore eagles in other parts of the country. "Patuxent is where most of our action is on bald eagle propagation and research, but here is where the payoff occurs," Hodel said at the Remington Farms news conference today. "In the Chesapeake Bay, and at other locations around the Nation, the species is rebounding at a remarkable rate. But in other areas, there are still few eagle pairs and their rate of reproduction is low. The support we've received from Du Pont through the years is helping bring eagles back so that more people can enjoy seeing wild bald eagles as we do here at the Chesapeake Bay.
