{"id":513404,"date":"2026-03-09T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/513404\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:56:09","slug":"bald-eagles-make-remarkable-comeback-in-iowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/513404\/","title":{"rendered":"Bald eagles make remarkable comeback in Iowa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SOLON, Iowa (KCRG) &#8211; Bald eagles, once nearly gone from Iowa, are now a common sight across the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Dave Conrads with the <a href=\"https:\/\/wild.education.uiowa.edu\/iowa-raptor-project\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/wild.education.uiowa.edu\/iowa-raptor-project\">Iowa Raptor Project<\/a> said he never saw a bald eagle growing up in Iowa until he was 21 years old at Lake Red Rock in 1986. He said the pesticide DDT, once used on farmers\u2019 crops, was the culprit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWith the onset of DDT after World War II, that got into the fish and that got into the eagles,\u201d Conrads said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iowadnr.gov\/programs-services\/iowas-wildlife\/bald-eagle\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.iowadnr.gov\/programs-services\/iowas-wildlife\/bald-eagle\">Iowa DNR<\/a> says that in 1978, under the Endangered Species Act, the bald eagle was listed as endangered in 43 states \u2014 including Iowa \u2014 and threatened in five others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The comeback began before that listing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIn 1972, they banned DDT. And so the environment began to clean itself out,\u201d Conrads said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In 1977, Conrads said the first bald eagle nest in Iowa was recorded. Populations began to grow from there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSo it didn\u2019t take long for bald eagles to begin repopulating some of their former haunts, especially along the Mississippi River. And then there was the introduction of the Endangered Species Act in the late 70s, which then also protected their habitats,\u201d Conrads said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Iowa Raptor Project has cared for a bald eagle named Spirit since the 1980s, after the bird collided with a telephone pole. Assistant Director Katie Ibsen said Spirit had to have part of her wing amputated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cShe was rehabbed and she ended up having to have her wing amputated a bit to save that wing. But Spirit arrived to our raptor center when bald eagles were still starting to get their populations back up,\u201d Ibsen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ibsen said Spirit represents the broader conservation story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI hope when people see Spirit, they can understand the importance of conservation and our conservation laws and why they\u2019re in place to save these species,\u201d Ibsen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Conrads noted the eagle\u2019s significance to both the nation and the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt is pretty amazing to see, not just our nation\u2019s symbol, but on the flag of Iowa, is the bald eagle, carrying our state motto. Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain,\u201d Conrads said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOLON, Iowa (KCRG) &#8211; Bald eagles, once nearly gone from Iowa, are now a common sight across the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[232642,232644,232645,232646,232643,79,31888,201],"class_list":["post-513404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bald-eagle-iowa-comeback","tag-ddt-bald-eagle-recovery","tag-endangered-species-act-bald-eagle","tag-iowa-bald-eagle-population","tag-iowa-raptor-project","tag-science","tag-we-the-people","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}