Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 277, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1920 — Would Protect Alaskan Eagles [ARTICLE]

Would Protect Alaskan Eagles

Audubon Society Urges Halt in Destruction, Due to 50-Cent Bounty Law.

BIRDS OF FREEDOM LIBELED Official Citea Instances of Mistaken Bird Campaign in Asking Suspension of gounty Law—l2,ooo Killed Since Law Enacted. New York.—American eagles in Alaska frequently kill full-grown deer, and are devastators of sheep and other live stock, fur-bearing animals, domestic and wild fowl, salmon and other food fish, according to Alaskans who have been writing on the subject to T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary of the Audubon Societies National association. Mr. Pearson has been directing from the New York offices of the association an agitation to save the American eagles in Alaska by removing the price of 50 cents a head, which was placed on their heads by the Alaskan legislature in 1917, which made them outlaws because of their supposed destructiveness. The accusers of the bird of freedom in Alaska have made out a very black prima facie case against him, but the bird experts of the Audubon societies generally believe that the eagle has been convicted on hearsay evidence and without much of a trial. By way of giving the bird his day in court, the department of agriculture has sent a scientist to I Alaska to make a close study of ways and habits of the defendant.

The number of eagles killed in Alaska- since the bounty law went into effect is not less than 12,000, according to estimates today. C. D. Garfield, secretary of the Alaska Fish and Game club, in a letter to Mr. Pearson in August said: “A vast difference is noted in the numbers of these birds showing in south-eastern and western Alaska, and It is safe prediction that, if the slaughter continues for a few years, longer, the species will become practically extinct in this country." Asks Suspension of Bounty. < According to Mr. Pearson, one section or another of this country is always working itself up into a witchhurning zeal against some particular bird, which usually proves in tune to be not only innocent, but beneficial. "Of course, human beings are more important than birds,” he said, “and their concerns are entitled to first consideration. If the charges against the American eagle were all proved, the bounty law would be justified. But there have been so many mistaken slaughtering campaigns against valuable or harmless birds that we are asking in this case a suspension of the j bounty taw until the sttidy of the habits of the eagle, which have been undertaken, show whether he really de•serves slaughter or not.

“A few years ago there was an anti-meadow-lark campaign in California. Speeches were made in the legislature to the effect that they were ruining the grape crop in some sections. For a time it seemed as if the meadow lark was doomed, but a •careful investigation of the origin of the outcry against the lark showed that it all started with & statement of a farmer that he had seen a lark sitting on the grapes. “New Jersey had a similar period of hysteria against ,the robin, which was alleged to be destroying, the cherry cron. There was a great propaganda in Arkansas and Texas for a time of the untrue charge that they were destroying rice fields. “One ot die most exciting campaigns of persecution against a liberal bird started along the gulf coast in 1918, when it was alleged that the brown pelican was destroying food fish

a day, and as It was put in one indictment—‘every day they consumed more food fish than the people of Texas got in a year. Mistakes Campaign Against Gulls. “The assailants of the birds placed their numbers at a million and started the slogan: ‘Kill the pelican or the kaiser will get you.’ They appealed to the federal food administration to aid in destroying the bird to save the fish. By co-operation between the federal and state authorities I undertook an investigation of the habits of the bird and made a cruise with a party visiting all hut one of the islands on which they were supposed to breed. This showed that, instead of numbering a million, their number could not exceed 65,000. It also showed that they lived exclusively on menhaden, a fish not eaten by hr.mr.ns. “One of these periodic flare-ups against birds actually left a deep mark on the development of the country and is truly an historic episode. It is recounted by E. H. Furbush, state ornithologist of Massachusetts, that the inhabitants of Southern Harbor a great many years ago became alarmed at the great flocks of gulls which congregated there to eat the heads and remains of the fish which were thrown into the water. It is a frequent charge against the gulls thslt they destroy food fish, but the fact is that they are almost exclusively scavengers. The anti-bird fever spread over this community and gulls were slaughtered until they were exterminated. Then what happened? The tons of fishhead and refuse thrown into the water was washed up along the beaches, causing stench and sickness and making the place uninhabitable. It ended with the Southwest Harbor people leaving the region almost in a body and founding Bar Harbor, Me. One of the few communities, on the other hand, to appreciate and remember benefits they have received from birds are the Salt Lake City Mormons.

“When they first settled the vicinity of Salt Lake, grasshoppers came on, them, like the plagues of locusts, settling on the ground in myriads and threatening the .complete destruction of their crops. Then the seagulls came out of rhe lake, eating the insects by the millions, even lighting in the yards and making their way into buildings to catch them. They exterminated the grasshoppers and saved the colony from famine. And very recently there was unveiled in Salt

Lake City a beautiful statue in honor of the seagulls. “With ihe history before us of so many mistaken crusades against birds we feel that we ought to make sure that we are right before attempting to exterminate the bird which is the emblem of our freedom.” Letter Upholds Bounty Law. One of the letters upholding the bounty law of Alaska is from Wright W enrich of Juneau, who said: “Strange as it may seem to you, most of us here shoot the (American eagles whenever we can, whether a bounty exists or not, feeling that every eagle killed means the annual saving of many, many valuable, or at least harmless, birdst beasts and fishes. We feel as a man has a fight to feel when a public service has been performed. At least the lives of many Innocent creatures has been spared. ““How many eagles exist in this territory, comprising an area equal to a fifth of rhe United States, I would not venture to estimate. On August 2 I was discussing the salmon propagation situation with the man in charge of the territorial fish commission’s work at Ketchikan,' Alaska. Among other things he told me of seeing eagles in flocks numbering 500 along the salmon spawning streams.

The birds were busily engaged in picking out rhe eyes first, and then fleshing the bones of the salmon so killed. Nor were these spent salmon, for they had not recently entered the streams. I do not doubt his story. Then, too, many other men have estimated the number of eagles seen in favorable localities along the salmon streams at even greater numbers. “Another phase of the situation was brought to my attention by a carefully observing forest ranger, who has been in this section many years—that the eagles are becoming gunwise and gunshy. Others have observed this fact. So havg I. “A second phase seems to be developing —that the eagles seem to be congregating in out-of-the-way places, where they are not so apt to be disturbed. The places where they 1 go, and where man never goes, are certainly numerous enough in Alaska.

“It is because we know them to be so numerous and to be taking such heavy toll of ducks, grouse and other birds, fur-bearers, fish and even * fullgrown <leer, that we feel they should be reduced In number until the harm they do is negligible. “As I write I have before me notes of ten instances, where eagles have killed, not only fawn, but full-grown deer. Should the occasion require It, I do not doubt I could secure hundreds of affidavits to the effect that eagles have been observed killing deer How many deer they kill out of sight of human witnesses can only be surinised by those who are in a position to comprehend the vast unsettled areas in Alaska.”