Desert Bald Eagles Get no Special Protection

A few hundred, eminently adaptable bald eagles did not become a "distinct population segment" when they took up residence in the Sonoran Desert, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge David Campbell granted Interior Secretary Sally Jewell's cross-motion for summary judgment in the case filed by the Center for Biological Diversity. The bald eagle is a "habitat generalist" that can survive almost anywhere, and the Sonoran Desert represents only a "minute fraction of the total suitable habitat for bald eagles throughout their range," Campbell wrote. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service largely removed the raptor from Endangered Species Act protections in 2007, hailing it as one of the law's greatest success stories. In the Lower 48 states, the bald eagle came back from fewer than 500 breeding pairs in 1963 to nearly 10,000 breeding pairs in 2007.  "Bald eagles are highly adaptable, wide-ranging habitat generalists," Campbell wrote. "Across the range of the species, there is no 'usual' ecological setting, in terms of the elevation, temperature, prey species, nest tree species, or type of water source." Noting that bald eagles have "been documented to nest on cliffs, on the ground, in mangroves, in caves, and in man-made structures such as cell-phone towers," Campbell agreed with the government that the desert eagle cannot be considered vital to the greater species "merely because it lives in the desert."...more