Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group receives award

Libby Mojica with golden eagle trapped in Highland County, Virginia and fitted with satellite transmitter. Photo by Fletcher Smith.

The Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group has received the Wings Across the Americas Award issued by the U.S. Forest Service. This annual award recognizes individuals and groups that provide outstanding contributions to international conservation of important bird species. The award will be presented during an awards ceremony to be held in Arlington, Virginia on 27 March, 2013.

Golden eagles are declining throughout North America and the population east of the Mississippi River is very poorly known and vulnerable. Birds from this population breed primarily in the eastern provinces of Canada but a significant portion of the population winters within the southern Appalachians and migrates along this mountain range. Birds within this region were virtually unknown in the early 1900s and only in recent decades have been “discovered” by the bird-watching community. Concern for this relatively small population in the face of industrial development has been mounting in recent years. Very little is currently known about the ecology and status of this population.

Libby Mojica with golden eagle trapped in Highland County, Virginia and fitted with satellite transmitter. Photo by Fletcher Smith.

The Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group is a small assemblage of scientists and managers from across the range of the population that has come together to develop conservation strategies and to raise awareness of this little-known population. The group is co-lead by Todd Katzner of West Virginia University and Charles Maisonneuve of Ministère des Ressources Naturelles, Direction de l’expertise Faune-Forêts-Territoire du Bas-Saint-Laurent.

Libby Mojica and Bryan Watts from the Center for Conservation Biology are members of the working group.

Written by Bryan Watts
3/1/13

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