A pair of eagles is preventing — at least temporarily — the removal of a century-old redwood tree.
A tree removal crew arrived at Seattle’s Madison Park neighborhood on Thursday, Feb. 26, ready to begin the process of cutting down a 100-year-old redwood tree, per KOMO News. The person who owned the property where the tree stood had a building project planned and had obtained the proper permit to clear the tree.
Neighbors gathered beneath the tree’s branches while the crew prepared to cut it down, and just before the workers started sawing, an onlooker noticed a bald eagle flying into one of the tree’s tall branches. Neighbor Julie Tokashiki Skerritt told the crew about the bird just as another one flew in, per KOMO News.
Two bald eagle sightings were enough to deter the crews, who were aware of the national protections in place for the birds.
The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a federal law enacted in 1940, forbids anyone from “taking” bald or golden eagles without a permit issued by the Secretary of the Interior.
The act of “taking” the eagles includes pursuing, shooting or shooting at, poisoning, wounding, killing, capturing, trapping, collecting, molesting, or disturbing them. This law also applies to eagle parts, including their feathers, as well as their nests and eggs.
The act also explicitly states that no “human-induced” alterations to the birds’ current or previous nest sites should be made if those alterations “agitate or bother an eagle to a degree that interferes with or interrupts normal behavior.”
The property owner who originally initiated the tree-cutting process told KOMO he used a drone to keep an eye out for the eagles’ possible nest or roost. He hasn’t found anything yet and is getting more information about how, or if, he can proceed if the tree is being used as a roost (a nest is for breeding, while a roost is an every-night dwelling).
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Tokashiki Skerritt told the outlet the nearby neighbors reached out to the Washington Department of Wildlife to report the matter. “It is 1772293448 at the federal level,” Tokashiki Skerritt said, “and then we’ll just have to follow the laws and the guidelines.”
The tree in question is part of a grove of six adult trees in an Environmentally Critical Area of 17,000 square feet, per KOMO.
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