After over 40 years of conservation efforts, bald eagles and ospreys are proposed to be removed from the New Jersey endangered species list, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette has announced.
“This is really significant, in terms of identifying a true success story for the Department of Environmental Protection and our ability to recover species,” said David Golden, assistant commissioner NJ Fish and Wildlife.
The rule proposal calls for moving bald eagles to the status of special concern. Under this status, its habitats and potential threats will continue to be monitored.
Bald eagles were removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007. A 2020 report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showed the bald eagle population had increased across the United States, including in New Jersey.
Kathy Clark, head of the state DEP’s Endangered and Non-Game Species Program, said bald eagle nest are found in every county in New Jersey.
Clark has been part of efforts to protect bald eagle populations in New Jersey since the early 1980s, when there was only one known nest, located in Cumberland. Through the bald eagle project, led by Clark, young bald eagles from Canada that had not been exposed to DDT were released in New Jersey.
“We had very modest ideas about what New Jersey could support in the wild eagle population and that was just blown out of the water,” said Clark. “It’s really an amazing thing, I think, for our state, an amazing accomplishment for a lot of people who have worked very hard to monitor eagles.”
Ospreys, another bird species affected by DDT in the 1980s, have shown positive signs of rehabilitation across New Jersey. The proposed rule change would update the status of the breeding population of ospreys from threatened to stable.
The public can comment online on the proposed rule change through Aug. 2. The new rule could be adopted by the late fall.
