The recovery of the American Bald Eagle is one of the most inspiring conservation stories in our country’s history. The eagle has gone from being an endangered species fifty years ago to a robust population today.

Following a century of habitat loss, hunting, and environmental pollution, the eagle population was endangered in the lower forty-eight states. The chief cause was DDT. The pesticide DDT was widely used in agriculture, and it polluted the nation’s waters. Eagles ingested DDT by eating contaminated fish, and it caused the shells of their eggs to be so thin that they broke during incubation. By 1963, there were only 417 nesting pairs of eagles left in the lower forty-eight states. The eagle was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1967.

In 1972, the EPA banned DDT, and thanks to habitat protections and reintroduction efforts, the eagle population began to grow again. By 2007, the eagle was removed from the endangered species list. By 2020, there were over 71,400 nesting pairs, and an estimated 316,000 eagles!

With my photograph, I tried to celebrate this amazing conservation success by showing that eagles are once again fishing the Mississippi River.