Pennsylvania Game News - November 2013 - 46

PA considers delisting bald eagle
WITH ITS NUMBERS in Pennsylvania continuing to soar ever higher, the
bald eagle soon could be removed from
the state's list of threatened species.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission's Bureau of Wildlife Management
is recommending the bald eagle be
upgraded from "threatened" to "protected" status statewide.
Doug Gross, a biologist who heads
the bureau's Endangered and Nongame
Birds section, addressed the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners
saying the bald eagle's remarkable
comeback in Pennsylvania has reached
a point where eagles safely can be
removed from threatened species list.
So far, Gross said, more than 270
nesting pairs have been confirmed
statewide. And while that count is not
final and the number of confirmed nesting pairs still could rise, the updated
figure represents the continuation of an
upward trend in Pennsylvania.
In 2012, researchers documented
237 nesting pairs statewide.
"This year marks just another high
point in the spectacular and widespread

recovery of bald eagles in Pennsylvania,
and it's clear that the definition of a
threatened species no longer describes
them accurately," Gross said.
According to Pennsylvania regulations, a threatened species is defined as
one that, throughout its range in the
Commonwealth, may become endangered in the foreseeable future.
The Bureau of Wildlife Management's recommendation to delist the
bald eagle as a state-threatened species
is based on eagles achieving a number
of goals outlined in the state's bald
eagle management plan.
The plan calls for delisting eagles as
threatened if all of four criteria are met
for five consecutive years. There must
be at least 150 active nests statewide;
successful pairs in at least 40 counties;
at least a 60 percent success rate of
known nests; and productivity of at
least 1.2 eaglets fledged per successful
nest.
Three of those criteria already have
been met for a five-year span, and eagles
in 2013 will exceed for a fifth-straight
year the requirement of nesting suc-

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Pennsylvania Game News - November 2013

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