In 1929 the state of Pennsylvania passed a law placing a $5 bounty on Northern goshawks. Even in the early 1960s ranchers in several Western states would pay a $25 bounty on golden eagles shot from aircraft, and "sportsmen's" magazines ran articles on "eagling" as both sport and profession. Thomas Burliegh notes in "Birds of Idaho" (1972): "Unfortunately it is considered rather destructive to the young of such species as deer, antelope and mountain goat, so it is shot at every opportunity.

In 1962, President Kennedy signed into law a resolution adding golden eagles to the Eagle Protection Act, but 10 years later they were still being killed. The protection of golden eagles was so threatening to Texas livestock interests that U.S. senators from the state tacked an amendment on the bill signed by Kennedy: ". . . on request of the Governor of any State, the Secretary of the Interior may authorize the taking of golden eagles for the purpose of seasonally protecting domesticated flocks and herds . . . ."

Even Hawk Mountain, a legendary raptor migration site, is described by the Massachusetts Audubon Society in "The Birdwatchers Companion" as follows: "This famous flyway was once the site of an annual 'varmint shoot' by ignorant farmers and 'sportsmen.'"

Before we judge too harshly, consider the following excerpt from an article by W. Raine in Volume 2 of the 1890 Wilson Bulletin, a journal of Ornithology that is still extant: "Eagles are destructive but not cruel birds, for although they deprive many birds and beasts of their lives, they effect this purpose with a single blow, sweeping down upon the doomed creature and striking it so fiercely with its death-dealing talons that the victim is instantaneously killed by the shock. The eagle never uses its beak for the purpose of killing its prey."

Prof. Raine tells a touching story of a golden eagle descending and carrying off an infant, whose mother had laid it beside a haycock while she was working in the harvest field close by. The eagle was traced to its eyrie in the precipice some distance off, and the poor mother, blind to all danger in her efforts to recover her babe, safely scaled the precipice, high up in which the nest was placed, though no man, however skillful a cragsman, had ever dared attempt the ascent. There the mother, found her child alive and unhurt, and clasping it to her arms, she descended again - a more perilous feat still; reached the ground in safety and then swooned away.

Raptors in general and eagles in particular now hold a place of esteem and worth in society's collective mind. Who among us would deny the value of the ecological services provided by these noble apex predators of the sky?

Now, in the enlightened 2lst century, our past treatment of raptors seems shameful.

Yet we still have the "frontier mentality" dictating policy toward apex predators on public lands. The ecological benefits and services provided by wolves and grizzly bears are real and just as important as the services provided by raptors. All manner of wildlife from marmots to Mormon crickets are deemed injurious and slated for extermination without so much as a cost/benefit analysis.

Often these decisions are based on "research" very much like that of the Wilson Bulletin above. As we examine our attitudes toward wildlife and habitat, we find that not much has changed.

Kent Fothergill is a professional biologist and WWP member from Buhl, Idaho.