The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to remove a population of bald eagles native to the deserts of Arizona, a small part of southern California, and the Mexican state of Sonora from the nation's list of endangered and threatened wildlife species.
In an announcement Wednesday the agency said that the Sonoran Desert population of bald eagles is not a "distinct population segment" eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act and that it will therefore remove the protection of the law currently in place for it.
“We conclude that the best information available does not indicate that persistence in the ecosystem of the Sonoran Desert Area is important to the species as a whole,” the agency said.
The Sonoran Desert population of bald eagles was previously listed as both an endangered and threatened species, along with all other populations of the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the United States.
That status existed until July 9, 2007, when the administration of President George W. Bush removed the bird known around the world as the nation's symbol from the umbrella of the Endangered Species Act.
However, the Fish and Wildlife Service, responding to a court order, continued the Sonoran Desert population's status as a threatened species.
On May 1, 2008 the agency classified the Sonoran Desert population as a distinct population segment and then, later that month, said it would commence a status review for it.
A federal district court in Arizona later gave the Service until Feb. 19, 2010 to complete it.
Environmentalists attacked the agency's proposed move.
"The population is reproductively, geographically, biologically, and behaviorally distinct from all other bald eagle populations, since no other bald eagle population occupies habitat so hot and dry – an adaptation that’s critically important as global warming becomes increasingly problematic for species survival," a statement issued by the Center for Biological Diversity said. "No other population of bald eagles will move in if this population disappears, and that will result in a significant gap in the overall bald-eagle range."
The agency's decision, once finalized, will likely be the subject of a renewed challenge in federal court.
Whether or not the Sonoran Desert population of bald eagles remains listed as a threatened species, it, like all other populations of the bird, remains protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Those federal laws prohibit killing or harming the eagles, their nests, or their eggs.
