Bald Eagle - January 2003 Species of the Month ||The Bald Eagle
(Haliaeetus leucocephalus) was January's Species of the Month in
honor of the 30th Anniversary of the New Jersey Endangered
Species Conservation Act and the formation of DEP's Endangered
and Nongame Species Program (ENSP). After being decimated by
poor reproduction due to pollution, New Jersey's bald eagle
population has been growing each year since the late 1980s. At
that time, there was just one active nest remaining. The state
gained its second nest in 1988, and the population has been
growing ever since, thanks to ENSP's reintroduction efforts in
the 1980s and annual management. Bald Eagles: New Jersey's
Success Story - The Division of Fish and Wildlife began to
implement strategies to help the bald eagle population in 1982,
after decades of impacts from hunting and pesticide use. - In
2003, volunteers counted 137 bald eagles during the State’s
annual Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Survey (fewer than 10 were observed
in 1978). - The number of known br