Winged Victory -

By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

As the national symbol, the bald eagle is supposed to be the embodiment of American strength, grace and pride. But for much of this century, the majestic bird has been an emblem of the country's careless and sometimes callous treatment of wildlife. Pinched by human population growth, poisoned by pollutants and slaughtered by hunters, the eagle went into such a decline that by 1940 Congress felt compelled to pass a law protecting the highflyer. It didn't work: in 1963 there were only 417 breeding pairs of bald eagles left in the lower 48 states, and by 1978, when the eagle was officially listed as endangered, there were only a few more than that. It seemed that Americans would soon have to travel to Alaska, where the bird has always thrived, for a glimpse of their national symbol in the wild.

Now the bald eagle has come back in a big way. The number of breeding pairs hit 2,000 in 1988, and after it surpassed 4,000 last year, biologists said the bird could be dropped from the endangered-species list. Last week, in a ceremony timed to resonate with the 4th of July holiday, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Mollie Beattie formally proposed that the eagle's status be changed from "endangered" to "threatened" everywhere except in one region of the desert Southwest. At a marshy spot in Maryland's Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Beattie marked the long-anticipated occasion by releasing a female bald eagle, fittingly named Hope, who had been nursed in captivity after suffering a broken wing. Following a 90-day public-comment period, the eagle can officially come off the endangered list.

Most environmentalists hailed the decision, though a few conservationists are concerned that the eagle's changed status could eventually put it in danger once again. In fact, the practical impact will be minimal; it will still be illegal to hunt or disturb eagles or their eggs. At most, it may be slightly easier to encroach upon the places where they live. Activities that threaten their habitats -- logging, for example, or other development -- will still be subject to review, though the process will probably be less stringent and enforcement less aggressive. Says Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club: "The signal is that there can be more flexibility now, not that it's open season."

Conservation groups trumpeted the eagle's comeback as a triumph for the Endangered Species Act of 1973, but the motives behind their enthusiastic press releases were partly political. Observes Jim Pissot, Washington State director of the National Audubon Society: "The Act itself is now endangered." Indeed, the law is currently up for reauthorization in Congress, and property owners and developers are working hard to have it weakened. The law is unfair to their business interests, they say. Besides, they insist, the eagle's comeback has much more to do with the 1972 banning of DDT, which weakened the shells of birds' eggs, and with increased public awareness of the eagle's plight than with the law itself.

Sympathetic legislators have introduced amendments that would give property owners more leeway in encroaching on animals' habitats. The House has trimmed an Administration request for increased funding that would have made it easier for the Interior Department to enforce the act. At the same time, some of its provisions have been successfully challenged in court.

Conservationists agree that the DDT ban played a large role in the eagle's revival and that the Endangered Species Act needs modification. Along with the Clinton Administration, though, they favor strengthening and refocusing the law. Instead of concentrating on individual animals such as the bald eagle, California condor or gray wolf -- an expensive, inefficient process and one that necessarily ignores some animals while targeting others -- environmentalists want to protect entire habitats and intervene long before animals are in serious danger.

A model for this new approach is a plan under development for California. To protect a bird called the coastal California gnatcatcher, officials will try to preserve the sage-scrub ecosystem where it lives. That will not only help the gnatcatcher but also ease pressures on many other declining species that inhabit the scrub.

While the bald eagle prospered under the existing Endangered Species Act, it should do just as well under a refocused version. Says Karen Steenhof, a wildlife research biologist with the Interior Department: "The eagle is still threatened, and there is still work to be done. Now it's time to finish the job we started: securing the eagle's habitat." If conservationists can do that, it will help preserve not just America's proudest symbol but plenty of lesser-known but no less important animals as well.

With reporting by Lawrence Mondi/New York and Mia Schmiedeskamp/Washington