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Forty years ago, when America was in the grips of the Vietnam quagmire, student protesters rocked college campuses, the counter-culture reached its zenith, and patriotism sunk to its low ebb, even our nation's symbol had become decimated to the point of near extinction. But from those ashes of national despair, America renewed its sense of purpose, helping the bald eagle to recover from the brink and soar back to not only claim its position as the centuries-old symbol of the nation, but to serve as a shining example of purposeful government action achieving remarkable success. On June 28, 2007, standing on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne declared that "the eagle has returned."
In 1782, over the protest of Benjamin Franklin, who insisted that the turkey become America's national symbol, the Confederation Congress adopted the bald eagle as the new nation's emblem of courage, resilience, and strength. At that time, experts believed that there were as many as 75,000 nesting bald eagles throughout the area that would become the lower forty-eight states, with 100,000 more bald eagles in the upper reaches of the North American continent. As the centerpiece of the Seal of the United States, the bald eagle was engraved on coins and currency, emblazoned on flags, and carved upon federal buildings. Perhaps no other symbol has become as emblematic of a nation as this distinct, white-head' ed raptor, endowed with a wing span of more than ten feet and perched upon its throne on the highest limbs of the tallest trees of the wild, watching warily for its prey below.
While hunting and the clear-cutting of forests for timber and development killed many bald eagles through the nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), brought into widespread use for mosquito control after World War II, that lead to the decimation of America's national symbol. Even as DDT was killing off the bald eagle population, Congress recognized the need to provide protection for this highest-profile species. The Bald Eagle Protection Act was passed in 1940 to prohibit the "taking" of bald eagles, including their body parts, nests, or eggs. (The Act was amended in 1962 to include the golden eagle and is now...