This is about as heartening an environmental success story as I’ve ever seen.

The federal government today removed the bald eagle from its list of threatened and endangered species, capping a 40-year comeback for the national icon that showed that disappearing creatures are not always lost.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made the announcement this morning before the dramatic backdrop of the Jefferson Memorial. Along with a crowd of dark-suited officials, those gathered to bear witness included boy scouts in uniform and a stately looking eagle with a snowy white crown. The decision offers a legal postscript to a rebound that has been obvious to bird-watchers across the country, especially along the eagle-rich Potomac River. There were 417 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the continental United States in 1967, after a decline blamed partly on the eggshell-thinning pesticide DDT. Forty years later, officials say, that number has grown to about 10,000 pairs.

“It’s really one of the greatest conservation success stories in U.S. history,” said Tony Iallonardo, a spokesman for the National Audubon Society.

Here’s to bald eagles. And here’s to having the gumption to take a stand and do what was necessary to stop driving our national symbol toward extinction.

More here.

And the official site here.

It is indeed a wonderful day when our national symbol is not only safe from extinction, but flourishing. It also amuses me when some environmentalists protest removing species from the endangered list. I thought that was the point… to get the species back up to the levels that means it’s no longer endangered. I didn’t find any links to people protesting the bald eagle being removed, but if you poke around you can find lots of stories like this one.

Jim: Yup - sometimes it seems like the environmental movement is stuck on gloom, as if acknowledging successes will somehow demotivate their entire movement. Much better to force-feed kids doomsday scenarios that give them nightmares.