"In 1782, when the United States adopted the bald eagle as its national symbol, anecdotal accounts stated that the country may have had as many as 100,000 nesting eagles. By the mid-1900s, habitat destruction, illegal shooting, and DDT contamination had driven bald eagles near extinction.
The eagle’s journey back from that brink ended happily for the nation, but its story is not a common one among plant and animal species that are listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Critics of the powerful law point to the small number of species that have made it off the threatened and endangered lists, and lawmakers cite that data in their proposals to weaken it.
But for all its complexities and restrictions over more than 50 years, the ESA has a different story to tell – one that reveals the large array of plants and animals, like the bald eagle, that without its protection would no longer be on Earth.
By 1963, there were only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles known to exist, despite the passage of the Bald Eagle Protection Act in 1940. The measure outlawed killing or harming the eagle, but that was not enough."
Jennifer Roberts reports for National Parks Traveler May 29, 2026.
