Tribes set to battle feds on eagles' status

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Kate Nolan

The Arizona Republic

Federal wildlife authorities may face lawsuits from Indian tribal leaders in Arizona who are upset over the handling of their views on the proposed delisting of bald eagles as endangered species.

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The bald eagle is sacred to many Native Americans, and 20 percent of the animals' 50 breeding areas in Arizona are on Indian land.

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The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon have sued the government, making a case that Arizona's eagles are an endangered population segment apart from the 20,000 eagles in the rest of the country that appear to have recovered after being decimated by pesticides in the 1950s.

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Dr. Robin Silver, a non-Indian audience member who is board chairman of the Center for Biological Diversity, said biological data support the tribes' view that the eagles should remain protected.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0511eagle0511.html

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Whether they are endangered or not should be solely an ecological/biological decision.

If we'd like to show these tribes some respect, certainly eagles can be protected by a new law.

[JoeMama 0]

The eagle is such a majestic bird when you see it close up. We definitely need to continue to protect the eagle. It makes me think of when Ben Franklin suggested the wild turkey be our national bird. No comparison on the exterior. But for anyone who's tried to hunt a wild turkey, you would know those damn birds usually outsmart their predators with ease!

[Ban Hammer 14,455]

The eagle is such a majestic bird when you see it close up. We definitely need to continue to protect the eagle. It makes me think of when Ben Franklin suggested the wild turkey be our national bird. No comparison on the exterior. But for anyone who's tried to hunt a wild turkey, you would know those damn birds usually outsmart their predators with ease!

yeah, except i see them all the time while driving around here. almost hit one in the road this past wednesday

[JoeMama 0]

The eagle is such a majestic bird when you see it close up. We definitely need to continue to protect the eagle. It makes me think of when Ben Franklin suggested the wild turkey be our national bird. No comparison on the exterior. But for anyone who's tried to hunt a wild turkey, you would know those damn birds usually outsmart their predators with ease!

yeah, except i see them all the time while driving around here. almost hit one in the road this past wednesday

They're good sized too! I remember riding with a friend when a pheasant flew out from the side of the road and it hit the headlight of his car. It damn near took the fender off after the impact! Talk about damage, I hope you never hit a cow with a car! That happened to my friend who was driving out on a country road one night near a dairy. I saw something flicker in the road in front of us. We were going about 35 mph. I asked him what the flicker was and we thought it was a cat in the road. Oh no! We came upon the spot where the flicker occured and all I saw was a cow laying in the middle of the dark road! I yelled, "It's a cow!". A split second after I said that, the hood of the car flew up and was stuck. We couldn't see anything! His brakes went out at the same time and we didn't stop for nearly 50 yards. We got out and looked at the front of the car and it was V-shaped inward. We went back to see the cow and it was dead on it's side. Using the flashlight, I could only see a small cut on the cow's head. I could not believe how tough their skin is. 10 minutes later, the cow's legs started to spread apart from beginning to bloat. All that methane gas started escaping too. It was bad! All in all, I'm glad we were going any faster than 35 mph!

Edited May 11, 2007 by altimixdj