Researchers dispute claim that eagle populations are crashing

State, federal and other bald eagle researchers dispute the recent assertion by Terrence Ingram, executive director of the Eagle Nature Foundation, that the bald eagle population in the Upper Midwest is crashing.

In an opinion article published Sunday in The Gazette, Ingram of Apple Valley, Ill., citing the results of the foundation's annual eagle counts, stated: 'Where we used to be able to see 600 to 800 bald eagles, now we only see 20 to 30. I don't know what to call this decrease other than a crash.'

Stephanie Shepherd, coordinator of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife diversity program, said she sees no evidence of a crash or even a decline.

'We see year-to-year fluctuations in our annual winter counts, but those are due to changing weather patterns, which dictate how eagles spread out across the landscape. Overall, the numbers have been positive,' she said.

A year ago, for example, when frigid weather concentrated eagles in the few remaining stretches of open water, 4,957 eagles — a record number — were recorded during the state's annual midwinter count, which includes routes across the state.

With milder weather enabling eagles to disperse across the landscape, 2,375 eagles were counted this winter, according to preliminary results.

Of those, 673 (or 28 percent) were immature eagles — a normal proportion, Shepherd said.

'It's harder to put a number on wintering and migrating eagles, whose numbers can fluctuate dramatically depending on the weather,' said eagle expert Drew Becker, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Rock Island, Ill.

'You need to look at overall trends, which are positive, not year-to-year ups and downs,' Becker said.

Last year, Iowa had 349 eagle nesting territories, up from 94 in 1998, according to DNR statistics. During the past 17 years, monitored nests with known production have yielded an average 1.46 eaglets per nest, more than enough to ensure continued population growth, Shepherd said.

That number is consistent with the 1.5-chick-per-nest average recorded at active nests in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, said Tim Yager, the refuge's deputy manager.

Eagle nests in the 261-mile-long, 240,000-acre refuge increased from fewer than 10 in 1986 to more than 300 in 2012 and 2013, before slumping slightly last year, Yager said.

'We have not seen a decline. The Upper Midwest bald eagle population is definitely stable if not increasing,' said Jennifer Drayna, a naturalist at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn.

Yager said he thinks the Upper Mississippi refuge is close to reaching the saturation point for eagle nests.

'Eagles need a certain amount of territory to support themselves and their families, and most of that territory is occupied,' he said.

Becker, who regularly surveys eagle biologists in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, said their reports indicate stable if not growing eagle populations.

'The population increase has slowed down, but we have not seen a decline,' Becker said.