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Declines in the number of eagles were first noticed in the late 1800s following sharp drops in the numbers of waterfowl and other eagle prey. The direct killing of eagles and the cutting of trees required by eagles for nest building also played a part. To arrest these activities, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act in 1940. Unfortunately, the Bald Eagle Protection Act was unable to defend the bird against the effects of harmful pesticides, especially DDT, which poisoned eagles and made it difficult for them to reproduce. By the time the bald eagle was listed under the Endangered Species Act, there were only 500 breeding pairs in the wild in the lower 48 states. The banning of DDT, coupled with the habitat-protection standards of the Endangered Species Act, has delivered a remarkable comeback in bald eagle numbers since then. In 1995 the bald eagle was downlisted from "endangered" to "threatened" after some 5,700 breeding pairs were counted in the wild. Today, with approximately 9,100 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering a proposal to declare the bald eagle recovered and to delist the eagle.
All five salmon species that spawn in the Pacific Northwest -- chum, Chinook, sockeye, pink, and Coho -- now face extinction and are protected under the Endangered Species Act. So, too, is the wild steelhead. The rivers and streams of the Columbia River Watershed once saw 16 million wild salmon returning each year. Now, a mere one percent of the fish that swam in these waters at the time of the Lewis & Clark Expedition make the journey upstream. In 1896, in a time when the decline in the number of salmon and steelhead was just beginning to be noticed, the total catch was some 3.3 million fish. By 1990, it had declined to 257,000. This decrease not only placed the survival of the species in jeopardy but also threatens indigenous cultural practices in existence for millennia as well as a commercial fishing economy that supports thousands of families. The near extinction of wild salmon and steelhead has been driven by poorly managed logging on public and private lands, disease spread from fish farms, irrigation for industrial agriculture, and dams that cut off access to spawning areas. The Sierra Club's Wild Salmon Campaign is working to empower people to secure better land and water use practices from their government so that salmon and steelhead once again will have the clean, free-flowing water they need to support healthy, harvestable numbers.
The Columbian white-tailed deer is one of 38 subspecies of white-tailed deer and occurs only on islands and in nearby riparian areas in the Columbia River Drainage in Washington State and Oregon. Loss of habitat resulting from residential and agricultural development, predation by coyotes, disease, and poaching all have been implicated in the decline of the species, which numbered less than 1,000 individuals when it was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1973. An active effort to recover the Columbian white-tailed deer has included conserving habitat though the establishment of special protected areas such as the Julia Butler Hanson National Wildlife Refuge on the Lower Columbia River in Oregon. Predator control has been used successfully to increase the number of fawns that survive their first year. Unfortunately, recovery efforts experienced a setback in 1996, when severe flooding on the Columbia River destroyed several islands that provided essential habitat, resulting in the loss of half of Washington state's white-tailed deer. Despite this setback, however, the active management program for the species has resulted in increasing the number of deer to more than 6,000 individuals, a greater than 600 percent increase since the species was first listed more than 30 years ago. This dramatic success led to one Oregon population of the deer being declared recovered and delisted in 2002.
Declines in the U.S. Aleutian Canada goose population began after arctic foxes were introduced to the islands by fur farmers and the birds wintering grounds in Oregon, Washington, and California were degraded by expanding agriculture and urban sprawl. The ground-nesting geese were unable to defend against the foxes in spring and unable to find sufficient refuge during the winter. By 1967, fewer than 800 Aleutian Canada geese remained in the wild. In 1973, the goose was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Listing under the Endangered Species Act promoted the eradication of the introduced foxes in historic goose habitat and encouraged the restoration of geese to that habitat once the foxes were removed. To further recovery efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies established cooperative relationships with landowners to conserve goose habitat on private property and to conduct research on the birds' conservation needs. By 1990, the number of geese had increased to an estimated 6,300, leading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify the goose from endangered to threatened status. In 1991, the Netucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge was established in Oregon, permanently conserving some of the wintering grounds essential to recovering the Aleutian Canada goose. In 2001, more than 32,000 Aleutian Canada geese were in the wild, prompting the bird to be declared recovered and delisted under the Endangered Species Act. Photos courtesy USFWS. Up to Top |
When European settlers first arrived in North America, as many as one million bald eagles flew in the skies. The bird's prowess led it to be declared the National Emblem of the United States by the Second Continental Congress in 1782. Despite its association with the new nation's identity, it was more than a century before the safeguarding of eagles became a national concern.
Over the past two centuries, the unfettered rivers of the Northwest that challenged
the Lewis and Clark Expedition have become polluted and divided by dams. The
costs have been many and include the near loss of one of the greatest spectacles
in the natural world: the annual spawning of the wild salmon and steelhead.
The white-tailed deer is one of America's most widely recognized wildlife species, ranging across the continent and found from backyards to remote wilderness. 
The cry of geese on the wind is the sound of an untamed symphony. Of the 12 species of goose native to North America, the Canada goose, with its black head and neck, and white "chinstrap," is one of the most readily identifiable. The Aleutian Canada goose, a subspecies, historically nested in the United States on islands off the Alaska Peninsula, westward across the Aleutian Island Chain.