Eaglets Henry and Agnes hatched at a time when their species seemed doomed. In 1976 only about 400 Bald Eagle pairs survived in the contiguous United States. As part of a last-ditch effort to save the national bird, scientists tucked the weeks-old chicks into a 40-foot tower in upstate New York. If the experiment worked, they would grow up, fly into the wild, and produce babies of their own, helping to expand the species’ dwindling territory. Biologists leading the rescue effort had never done anything like it before. They knew it was a long shot, but the conditions were ripe to try.
Three years earlier, on December 29, 1973, President Richard Nixon had signed the Endangered Species Act (ESA), arguably one of the most powerful environmental laws in U.S. history. For decades humans had wantonly destroyed wildlife habitat at a breakneck pace—chopping down forests, plowing up prairies, filling in wetlands, and poisoning the environment with pesticides. The publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring revealed these farming chemicals, originally designed for warfare, were imperiling wildlife, sparking outrage and inspiring an environmental awakening.
The passage of the ESA marked a capstone to environmental regulations put in place in the 1960s
