Saving A Paradise Ep. 5: How Bald Eagles Came Back From The Brink In Louisiana

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[00:00:10][music] >> Not so long ago, this scene would have been almost inconceivable.

[00:00:17]A bald eagle sitting in all its majesty atop [music] a Louisiana cypress tree.

[00:00:29]>> [music] >> Once on the doorstep of extinction, the eagle has roared back.

[00:00:45]Seth Blitch is director of conservation for The Nature Conservancy in Louisiana.

[00:00:49]I mean, I remember, you know, as a kid seeing an eagle was a special thing. And it still [music] is. But you can regularly see eagles now.

[00:00:55]>> Few of nature's creatures evoke the same kind of emotion. A symbol of strength and patriotism, and simultaneously a triumph of environmental laws >> [music] >> and conservation.

[00:01:09]To no small extent, the bald eagle is also a Louisiana success story. Eagle flying over the trees straight ahead.

[00:01:16]>> Billy Gaston makes a living largely off bald eagles. We can see up to 60 eagles in a tour. Gaston offers tours in one of the hotspots for eagle activity, Lake Palourde, near Morgan City. Just the scenery by itself is just breathtaking.

[00:01:32]Some of the oldest cypress swamp in Louisiana right here. Other species play supporting roles in this show, osprey and cormorants among them. But mostly for the eagles, Gaston's Cajun Man Swamp Tour draws tourists, nature lovers, and a devoted following of photographers like Greg Robichaux.

[00:01:52]>> I look forward to every one of them I can come to. Robichaux remembers a rare eagle sighting years ago. We got to see one flying over our head and everybody stopped what they were doing just to go see one. That's how rare they were. Saw my first several on our Billy's trip.

[00:02:08]Uh I was hooked.

[00:02:09]And I've been coming back ever since.

[00:02:11]Greg Smith figures he's made about 25 or 30 trips on Billy Gaston's boat.

[00:02:17]Unlike many bird [music] species that migrate through Louisiana, eagles nest and raise their young here in the winter and spring. The eaglets typically [music] hatch by January or February. By 10 weeks old, they are no longer at risk from predators and biologists consider the nest a success. By 12 weeks, the young eagles take their first flight.

[00:02:45]By the 1960s, roughly 400 pairs were known to nest in all of the lower 48 states. In Louisiana, the picture was even gloomier. State biologists estimated there were as few as five breeding pairs. Scientists laid the blame primarily on the pesticide DDT, which was widely used in agriculture and mosquito control programs. The birds ingested the chemical through their diets. And it had the impact of making their eggs the shell on their eggs couldn't get hard. And so, when they were actually incubating those eggs, they were soft and they would actually break their own eggs.

[00:03:21]The government ultimately banned DDT.

[00:03:24]That's a really simple example of what can be done to help restore species. The birds were protected under the Endangered Species Act and the population soared. Eagles are you know, like pelicans in many ways because there's a concentrated effort to help bring those populations back, it was successful. The government removed the eagle from the endangered species list in 2007, widely regarded as one of conservation's great success stories.

[00:03:51]That does not mean there are no risk [music] to them. I don't think anything is home free though, again because because of how fast habitats are still being converted, you know, eagles need large trees >> [music] >> and they need abundant food supply.

[00:04:03]They're really large birds and when they have a brood of chicks, those are hungry you know, they're hungry chicks and they need a lot of food.

[00:04:09]>> In Louisiana, the challenges include the simple loss of real estate. The birds rely on healthy fisheries and South Louisiana's coastal land loss threatens to deprive them of more habitat. [music] >> And that includes coastal forest, not just salt marsh, but but everything that's in that zone and and there's still a lot of big trees around and as you lose those, there's just less space for eagles to be. Most people in Louisiana think of the swamp yacht.

[00:04:35]They've never been out and experienced [music] it, they need to get out here.

[00:04:42]The eagle has proven to be resilient and adaptable, even setting up nests high above the ground in urban areas and suburban neighborhoods.

[00:04:52]In 2020, the US Fish and Wildlife Service estimated their numbers topped 300,000.

[00:05:00]Roughly four times higher than 10 years earlier.

[00:05:03]What excites people is this population renaissance played out not in some distant place, but here in real time over just a few decades. [music] Every time I see one, I you know, it never gets old. I just love watching the bald eagles.

[00:05:19]For the bald eagle's recovery, South Louisiana enjoyed a front row seat.