Bald Eagle Presentation

About this event

Call 860-526-0018, email Library@chesterct.org, or click the image to register online: The history of America would not be complete without the soaring presence and remarkable saga of the Bald Eagle. Native to North America, this magnificent raptor evolved from an ancient spiritual and sacred bird to a symbol of the United States of America. Before the colonists appeared, indigenous cultures revered this mighty eagle and viewed it as a messenger connecting the living to higher spirits and lost ancestors. When seeking a national emblem, the Continental Congress wanted something unique to their new country and, after nixing the suggestions of many unsuccessful committees, they approved the Bald Eagle be placed on the Great Seal of the United States, which was adopted in 1782, with the Bald Eagle at the center of the seal, clutching branches and arrows in its talons to signify the balance between peace and war. Despite achieving the highest peak in American iconography, early settler and farmers loathed the Bald Eagle, and perceived it as a threat to livestock, commercial fisheries—even pets and infants. Humans hunted and trapped them, fed them to their hogs—even poisoned them throughout the 1800s. Once a species that numbered up to half a million country-wide, it soon dwindled to just 417 nesting pairs in the late 1960s because of earlier decimation and uncontrolled hunting, loss of habitat and the use of dangerous pesticides, such as DDT. By the time Congress finally passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940, the species had already seen massive declines. The saga of the Bald Eagle, the symbol of our country, is one of reverence, near-extinction and successful conservation. The ongoing story of their recovery as a species and CT’s healthy eagle population is a comeback story worth noting. Join Ginny Apple, a Master Wildlife Conservationist with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, for a talk about this awe-inspiring bird of prey, its…

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