The All Nations Powwow 2008 is upon us!

It is well known that the American Bald Eagle is consider the most sacred of all birds to the Native American. It was in danger of becoming extinct not long ago. Only last year in June it was taken off the endangered species list. This was partly due to the efforts of an organisation in Oklahoma called the Sutton Avian Research Center.

Thanks in large part to the efforts at the local Sutton Avian Research Center, the southern bald eagle has flown off the endangered species list. Often characterized as the national symbol of America, the eagle was at one time on the brink of extinction. Today, however, the bird is soaring high with well over 5,000 nesting pairs flourishing across the nation.

Sutton Center kicked off one of its largest restoration programs in 1985 with the mission of returning the once dwindling population of eagles back to their natural habitats by raising them in captivity. There was a lot resistance when the project first started. The (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service said that there was no way this would work. The Sutton Center, however, proved critics and detractors wrong as project members gathered eagle eggs from Florida and traveled back to the center to raise the soon-to-be baby birds. There was a decent population of bald eagles in Florida. In 1985 the team took eagle eggs from nests, which didn’t hurt the eagle population there, since they would lay another set of eggs. The Sutton Center kept the eggs warm in incubators and raised the baby eagles. The eaglets were then released in high quality habitats in five southern states, including Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and North Carolina. As a result of the project, 90 eagles were released in Oklahoma, 69 in Alabama, 98 in Mississippi, 14 in Georgia and four in North Carolina.

The success stories of the southern bald eagle continues to fly high. The number of bald eagle nests are increasing on an annual basis. In 2005, for example, there were 55 nesting pairs of bald eagles in Oklahoma, and many of those who were raised in captivity often return to the place they were released from. Along with the past and present efforts at the Sutton Center, they credit the banning of the harmful pesticide, DDT, in restoring the bald eagle population.

Eagle numbers began to drop because of the use of DDT. They were extremely endangered in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. When DDT was banned in the ‘70s, there were 403 pairs of bald eagles in the southern United States. Bald eagles in Alaska and Canada were never endangered, though.

The center continues to play active roles in the eagle population today. Just recently they have begun placing web cameras in eagle nests in order to study the lifestyles of these birds.

For more information on the center’s involvement in restoring the southern bald eagle population, go to www.suttoncenter.org or www.myspace.com/itsallaboutbirds.com

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING EVERYONE SOON!!!!!!!

Bob and Anoli

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