Iconic America

Man, voice-over: Bald eagles remind me of Americans.

They're opportunistic and inventive, and they will do anything they can to survive.

Woman, voice-over: Eagles are creative.

They are strong.

Characteristics that go along with the American ideal.

Different woman, voice-over: For us, the eagle is more than just a symbol.

It's a relative.

They're something that we respect, something that we take care of.

Their lives means just as much to us as our own lives.

[Screeches] Man, voice-over: The eagle was considered the king of birds just as the lion is the king of beasts, and, of course, the eagle had been a symbol of power and authority, and over time, it just became almost synonymous with our country.

Woman, voice-over: When I see a eagle, you know, I'll say hi to them or talk to them.

Ha ha!

Maybe I'm a little crazy, but they're part of our life here.

Neil Armstrong: Houston, the Eagle has landed.

Man, voice-over: In the United States, the eagle fits in to every person, to every event, to every president because it's such a part of history and culture of America.

[Crowd cheering] Man, voice-over: The eagle represent the success of an ecosystem that's critical to all life.

How dull our lives would be without all of these brethren that we have on this planet.

To watch an eagle fly through the air and dive, it takes you to a different place.

Hi.

How are you?

How we doing?

I am going to Haines, Alaska... All right.

to look at the bald eagles.

OK.

Assume I have nothing, so what do I need to go see the bald eagles without getting eaten up or frozen to death?

I'm a city slicker.

I don't know anything.

OK.

I would start with wool socks... OK. something like that, what I'll wear most of the time.

OK. What else do I need?

Your next thing, I would say long underwear.

OK.

I like something like that with a neck.

It's definitely a little warmer.

Next up, I would do a shell jacket.

All right.

What about the bears?

You had any people attacked by bears?

There has been bear attacks, yes.

But nobody that's ever bought clothing here has been attacked by a bear, right?

No.

I don't think so.

OK, so-- I think our clothing's bearproof.

All right.

I'll take that, and how long does it take to see the bald eagles?

Do they just wait when people like me show up?

They're everywhere.

They're everywhere.

You'll see them.

They won't bite me, right?

No.

OK, so you've never been attacked by a bald eagle, right?

I sure haven't.

No.

No?

They don't come after you?

You ever seen that movie "Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock?

They have birds attacking people.

I have definitely seen that.

But that's not something I have to worry about?

No.

Rubenstein, voice-over: The greatest bald eagle congregation on Earth happens in Southeastern Alaska just before the fierce Alaskan winter.

The journey takes several hours by ferry through the ice-capped glaciers of the Alaskan fjords.

Aw, amazing, unbelievable.

[Bald eagle screeching] Rubenstein, voice-over: The village of Haines lies on a remote peninsula nestled between the Chilkat and Chilkoot rivers.

In early November, it's home to the largest bald eagle migration in the world.

[Bald eagle screeches] Rubenstein: So we're gonna see some bald eagles here?

Man: Well, there's 3 of them right here-- these are all adults-- and then, oh, here's some bear tracks right here, so this is a grizzly or a brown bear.

Those are the claws, and, of, course, he's here for the same reason the eagles are here-- there's all these fish-- and, look, is that an eagle right there?

Yeah, that's-- and so that's an eagle right there eating a fish.

The congregation here is one of the great spectacles of wildlife in the world.

I mean, it's akin to what happens in the Serengeti when the wildebeests, you know, migrate.

[Bald eagle screeches] And do you think it's appropriate that the American bald eagle is, in effect, a symbol of our country and our national seal?

Yeah.

I think so.

The bald eagle is unique to our country, and technically, we only have two eagles in North America-- the golden eagle and the bald eagle, and everybody loved the eagle, and so the main eagle that was chosen for a national symbol around the world-- Rome and many, many other countries-- is the golden eagle.

The golden eagle is from the booted eagle family, the true eagles-- those are Aquila-- and then the Haliaeetus are actually fish eagles, or the bald eagle.

And do you think the people in the Lower 48 appreciate the bald eagles and what they do for our country in terms of it being a national symbol?

In terms of a national symbol, I think that they understand them that way.

What I don't think that they understand is the ecological value that they have.

The bald eagle is truly a symbol of the success of this ecosystem.

So there's an adult, and, of course, she's hunting right now.

This is observing the river.

It doesn't really look like it.

She's actually watching that immature eagle eat the fish, and she'll at some point, if she's hungry, she'll fly over there and displace that young eagle, and then you notice, also--see that magpie?-- there's a magpie stealing his share of the food, too, and so when they do drag a fish out, they're actually feeding a whole lot of other animals once that fish has been drug out of the river.

And what kind of bird is flying down there now?

That's a gull.

You think the gull is now gonna try to steal some of that fish?

No.

He's gonna wait his turn.

He knows better than to confront the eagle.

[Gull squawking] If the eagles didn't come here, what would happen to Haines, Alaska, and the whole ecosystem here?

It would start to unravel.

Most people don't realize that there's a cascade effect.

When eagles are gone, you see this degradation of the ecosystem, and, in fact, the eagle is an economic value here locally because people come from all around the world to visit to see eagles here.

But the tourists who come to Haines, Alaska, is it mostly because of the bald eagles, or is there other reasons they might come here?

They come to see a pristine ecosystem intact, which is a very rare thing in the world today.

[Bald eagle screeches] This ecosystem is as close to pristine as any ecosystem that exists.

In fact, this is the greatest expanse of wilderness left on Earth.

Rubenstein, voice-over: If you want to find the largest congregations of eagles in Alaska, you've got to follow the salmon.

I've never canoed down a river before, but seeing our nation's greatest living symbol up close and personal seems like a worthy cause.

If you see a bald eagle, what is the impression that comes into your mind-- the beauty, the majesty, the strength?

To me, it's healthy ecosystem.

And why do the bald eagles come here?

In one word, they come here for the salmon.

You said healthy ecosystem, but is climate change affecting this ecosystem, or not really?

So it is affecting it, and we have seen during really warm summers-- like 2019, for example-- some spikes in temperature here, but the Chilkat Valley is in pretty good shape right now, actually in extraordinary shape right now.

Look at that bald eagle right there.

Now, its eyesight is so good, it could see us easily from there.

Evans: Oh, for sure.

It can probably read the letters on my life jacket.

Really?

Yeah.

Did you notice what we're walking on here?

No.

Bear tracks.

Oh.

Ha ha ha!

Well, you got your bear spray.

I sure do.

Yeah.

There's no bear that's gonna come in this kind of open-- No, although I have been seeing a bear up near Klukwan when I do the surveys.

Brown bears or black bears, which is more dangerous?

Brown bears.

Brown bears.

[Screeching] So we'll get this set up somewhere where we can get a good view.

What the survey is, is I count every single eagle that I can see within 360 degrees.

Evans: What do you think is the most important piece of equipment that a field biologist needs?

Pen and paper.

Pencil.

Oh, pencil.

OK. Well, worked for Darwin.

Yeah, exactly.

Rubenstein: How many have you counted so far?

I'm up to 82.

82?

Yes.

And what's the record, if you see-- 1,200.

Oh.

Ha ha ha!

[Screeching] Bald eagles are an indicator of a healthy ecosystem, so when I see dozens of eagles in one tree, that, to me, tells me that things are going all right here.

Yeah.

Wow.

You can see a lot of them.

And this is called a YSI probe, and it's going to measure several characteristics about the watershed, so right now, it's 2.3 degrees Celsius, which is perfect, as salmon like that temperature of water.

So if the water gets warmer and the salmon don't come, what happens, the whole region would kind of change?

Absolutely.

I would say that we'd experience an entire ecosystem collapse if the salmon stopped returning.

[Bald eagle screeching] Woman, voice-over: I've spent a lot of time over the years working with groups of people from all over the world, not just the United States, and whenever we see an eagle, everyone stops whatever they're doing and takes a moment to look at the eagle, to photograph the eagle, to pull out their binoculars.

I'm a wildlife biologist, but within wildlife biology, there's a lot of different disciplines, and so I'm probably more accurately described as a biogeographer, which means I study the distribution of living things across landscapes.

My yurt sits at the southern border of the Haines Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

In 1982, it became the first state preserve for a wildlife species in Alaska.

I'm looking for eagle nests and nest activity, and this time of year, nest activity is starting to go down because the eagles are foraging and some of them will be migrating.

We often hear that Alaska's so big, there's wildlife everywhere, but that's not true.

Wildlife need very specific requirements, and eagles are no exception.

One of the main reasons why the bald eagle preserve was established in this location is because of salmon.

The Chilkat River has a really special salmon story, and that salmon story literally feeds the eagle congregation.

The eagles have a very powerful voice in conservation.

It's one of those species that I can talk about when I walk into an office for a member of Congress in Washington, D.C., and explain to them, you know, where I live and why birds are important and give the example of the bald eagle... [Screeching] so it continues to hold this national and global significance as this incredible species of awe.

Rubenstein, voice-over: Bald eagles have been captivating Americans since our country's earliest days.

Its storied history as a national icon still resonates as an enduring symbol.

[Car horn honks] Back in my urban habitat of Washington, D.C., the only eagles I see are usually made of stone.

I've come to the National Archives to better understand the origins of how this bird became synonymous with America.

[Beep] Rubenstein: And how often do you take the Seal out?

Not very often, just for dignitaries.

I would say not even once a year.

Oh, OK, so it's in pretty good shape, then.

Yes, very good shape.

The first committee was established on the same day of our independence-- July 4, 1776-- and the committee was of Franklin, John Adams...

Right.

and Jefferson.

They came up with a design.

The Congress said, "We don't like it."

4 years later, in 1780, they established a second committee, and the consultant to that committee was Francis Hopkinson, and this is his design.

Rubenstein, voice-over: Locked away in the vaults of the National Archives are the earliest renditions of our national seal.

It took our fledgling republic over 6 years and 3 different congressional committees to finally approve our country's seal, eventually establishing the bald eagle as an American icon.

Rubenstein: In 1776 when the 13 colonies said, "We're gonna be independent of Great Britain," to be independent, you need to have a seal to authenticate documents.

Is that right?

Exactly, and, in fact, it was on the 4th of July itself as the last order of business before Congress went home for the day that they appointed a committee of 3 of the most eminent members of the Congress-- Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams-- to come up with the design for a seal because they understood that this was an important step in achieving independence.

In other words, after they voted on the wording of the Declaration of Independence, they said, "We're not done today.

We got to go do something with the Great Seal"?

Exactly.

So this is from the third committee, and this is by William Barton, and this is his design of the front of the seal.

McMillan: This is the first time the eagle shows up, so Barton gets credit for introducing the eagle, but he makes it very tiny, and it's not a bald eagle.

It's just a silver-- Rubenstein: Looks a little scrawny to me... silver eagle.

compared to bald eagles, right?

Ben: What sort of bird shall we choose as the symbol of our new America?

The eagle.

The dove.

The turkey.

Rubenstein: Benjamin Franklin wasn't saying, "What about the turkey?"

Well, Benjamin Franklin was in Paris at the time and wasn't actually there to object if he'd wanted to, but the story of Benjamin Franklin and the turkey is not quite what the musical "1776" made it out to be.

The eagle's a scavenger, a thief, and a coward, a symbol of over 10 centuries of European mischief.

Man, voice-over: Benjamin Franklin was reacting in a sort of humorous way against this hereditary society that had been formed which was a group of people who wanted to be sort of an aristocracy in America because they had fought under General Washington, and they had the bald eagle as their symbol.

Well, Ben Franklin ever since he was a young kid hated the idea of an aristocracy or the privileges that were passed down, and so he pokes fun at that, and he pokes fun at the bald eagle as their symbol, saying, "Hey, we should have the turkey.

"The turkey is an all-American bird.

It's hardworking."

He did it partly as a joke, but he was partly serious, as always with Ben Franklin.

This is Charles Thomson's design.

Rubenstein: His design, but not the official... McMillan: It's not the final.

But it was the one that was approved.

I would say this is really the breakthrough.

There's a long tradition in Western countries that spread all around the world that for highly special formal documents, a seal is applied to show everyone the authenticity of the document, and so the United States needed a great seal for things like treaties to make sure that people respected the commissions that it gave to its officers, both military and civilian, and for other ceremonial purposes to be able to play on the same kind of stage that the other countries of the world did at the time.

Woman: The eagle has a long historical set of values, so you have, let's say, in Rome the Aquila, which was the symbol of military strength.

There's the keen eyesight, the predation.

There's just these aspects of the bird that are associated, really, with the kind of violence of military conquest, so there's a lot that's, you know, what you could call apotropaic about a symbol.

It wards off evil, and it's about reflecting out, you know, not so much that you live in that form of domination, but that you are actually using it almost as a mirror to your enemy to make you stronger than yourself.

Rubenstein: So that is the seal of the United States of America.

First seal of the United States, right, and the first time is was used was September 17, 1782, and was commissioned for George Washington.

And this is officially called the Great Seal of the United States of America.

Fitzgerald: Right.

Rubenstein: What was the impact of having the eagle on the seal?

McMillan: The various design elements of our patriotic symbols, the flag and the eagle, seemed to have caught on rather quickly in the popular imagination, and over time, it just became almost synonymous with our country.

Film narrator: The Screaming Eagle, the 101st Airborne Division.

America, I'm a bald eagle.

Announcer: The next great Jeep idea--Jeep Liberty.

Rubenstein, voice-over: The decision by our country's founders to place the bald eagle on the national seal transformed this solitary species into the symbol of a young republic, setting it on a path to become an iconic emblem of American pride and freedom.

Along the banks of the Mississippi in a tiny Minnesotan town... Man: This is the oldest town in Minnesota.

Also looks like the coldest town in Minnesota.

Rubenstein, voice-over: is the newly minted National Eagle Center, which will soon house the largest collection of bald eagle memorabilia in the country.

[Bald eagle screeches] This is Angel, our 22-year-old female who weighs 10 1/2 pounds, and let's see if she's interested in her dinner.

It's a big chunk of chicken.

She's very interested in her chicken.

Ha ha ha!

[Angel screeches] What does that mean?

So that's a territorial call.

Angel is just vocalizing to any eagle who may be in the area that that's her food, "Don't come anywhere near it."

[Screeches] Rubenstein: This is the famous eagle collection here.

You could see what is probably the largest privately owned collection ever assembled on the American eagle.

When I started collecting eagles, I looked at the eagle as a postcard or as a print or as a political button with an eagle on it.

It didn't mean anything to me in the beginning, but it started taking a meaning to me later in the collection as I collected more and more items, and all of a sudden, I said, "Hey, this is the symbol of America," and this really means something to me.

This is a patriotic symbol.

This is the symbol of independence.

It is a symbol of freedom.

It is a symbol of liberty, and it started having a deep meaning to me.

Diaz, voice-over: Thinking about other symbols in America, something like the eagle has so much more power than, say, the Republican, you know, symbol of the elephant, the Democrat symbol of the donkey, and on the other hand, you can think of the eagle as a symbol of jingoism or of military strength that sometimes can become an overwhelming ideology of power in which imperialism is the sort of closest association, so, again, the eagle has this breadth that it can be used symbolically for very-- you know, for these very hopeful and creative ends and also for, you know, somewhat more sinister and perhaps jingoistic ones.

All right.

What are we looking at here?

This is the presidential flag that, according to my records, it hung in the White House during the Jimmy Carter administration.

Really?

It did.

I worked there then.

I don't remember this, but maybe it was there.

Well, they said it was used in the White House.

Probably was.

Rubenstein: Is this something you're proud of and you tell people all the time, "I'm the biggest eagle collector in the world"?

Well, I don't quite put it that I'm the largest but I'm the largest that I've ever heard about, and I've spent quite a bit of time trying to find other eagle collectors or an eagle collectors club, and I've never found one.

Cook: Well, here's an eagle I'd like to show you.

This was used in the viewing stand in 1941 for the FDR's third inauguration... Wow.

so this is a plaster of paris eagle that was painted to look like it's bronze so it would look like it was permanent, but it was just a ephemeral piece of decoration.

So there's a doorknob collectors society, and this is considered the Holy Grail of doorknobs, and I wanted to show you a couple of other items that we've put out here.

It shows eagles from a variety of different perspectives and angles, from ornithology to military to politics and art, propaganda over here with this Russian eagle, and how the eagle is used culturally here in "Tarzan" and in other formats.

So every party wants to make its supporters believe it's patriotic, and so a symbol of patriotism is the bald eagle, so Democrats and Republicans both use the bald eagle.

Is that right?

That is correct, so naturally, what the eagle's all about, the eagle, it has two wings and a left wing and a right wing, and it represents all of Americans, so every candidate has used eagles in numerous ways as a symbol of patriotism.

I see.

Diaz, voice-over: When something becomes a national symbol, it's more fraught.

For example, in times of war, the eagle becomes more of a symbol of conquest and of military strength, and other times, it can be a symbol of, let's say, you know, the land or of, like, a certain relationship to the expanse of America, and the eagle is a symbol of that vast space, and so within that, there's, you know, obviously the room for a lot of different identifications at different moments and what that symbol can mean for different, you know, people at different times.

Rubenstein, voice-over: Another 50 miles up the Mississippi, the bald eagle is honored as a sacred species at the Prairie Island Reservation of the Dakota people.

Woman: This is an eagle staff.

Different tribes have different eagle staffs.

They look a little different, the colors are different, and so we always bring this out at powwows and other ceremonies where there will be a drum and dancers.

This always comes out at the very beginning of the line.

It comes out before any of the flags.

For us, it's more important than any flag.

With the eagles being national symbols, it is something that we've felt were special for a long time, and it's funny how they just learned the same thing that we had known since time immemorial, how special the creatures are.

The only difference is, it's a symbol for them, and it's a relative for us.

[Screeching] Our ancestors, they were so important to them that anytime you had an act of bravery, wisdom, any kind of special event, you would receive an eagle feather.

When a boy became a man, he received an eagle feather.

When the men went to war and were successful in a battle, they would receive eagle feathers, and once they received enough eagle feathers, they could have a headdress made.

Unfortunately, there are people that just don't understand the significance of the eagle and how important they actually are.

The Dakota way of life, you know, they're a special creature.

We share a lot of the same history that the eagle shares.

The eagle faces a lot of the same dangers that we do.

We both face different environmental injustices, so we see a big comparison there between us and the eagle.

Rubenstein, voice-over: Native Americans treasured the eagle as a spiritual and cultural symbol long before our country existed.

[Engine starts] Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Davis recently wrote a defining history of the bird and how it wasn't always so beloved in America.

Davis: I grew up on Tampa Bay.

When I was a kid, I spent all my time on Tampa Bay in the early 1970s, never saw a bald eagle.

We pushed them to the edge of extinction in the Lower 48, and in 1963, the nesting population across the Lower 48 was fewer than 500.

Wow.

Davis: One time in-- in America, the bald eagle was treated like a nuisance species, like predators such as wolves and coyotes and bears and mountain lions, um, because it was seen as a threat to American livestock.

It was unnecessary competition, a burden on, uh, the livestock farmer, but not only the livestock farmer.

You know, Americans, in those days, virtually every American had chickens in their backyard and, uh, bald eagles are notorious chicken thieves.

And so a bald eagle seen was a bald eagle to be shot.

You were doing a public service by-- by killing a bald eagle.

It's an interesting paradox.

Americans love the image of the bald eagle, uh, once the great seal was adopted, but at the same time they'd loathed the species.

Dawson: Before the establishment of the critical habitat for bald eagles, the state of Alaska actually had a bounty on bald eagles, and they think about 120,000 eagles in Alaska alone were killed for a bounty.

Davis: So, the bald eagle, all but disappeared from the Eastern seaboard states.

So many people were afraid that the bald eagle would go the way of the passenger pigeon, the last of which died in 1914.

Then why were people so concerned about it?

There are plenty of other birds out there.

Was there something about the bald eagle that made people upset that there weren't gonna be bald eagles anymore?

Many people recognized that--that to allow the living representative behind this powerful symbol of freedom, uh, to deny this--the bird of freedom its own freedom was duplicitous, it would be disgraceful, that it would undermine the integrity of the seal and our own commitment to the values that we associate with the seal such as freedom.

They lobbied Congress for federal legislation that would safeguard the future of the living species behind that symbol.

And in 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act.

[Boat engine humming] When did you begin to see that the bald eagles were coming back to Florida?

Really, not until the 1990s that I personally witnessed that, but in the 2010s, the bald eagle population across the country quadrupled.

And when did we declare them no longer endangered?

In 2007, they were delisted.

Man: You're gonna see the nest coming up here on the left-hand side.

It's the largest pine tree in the background.

You got two juveniles in there.

They've been branching for probably about a week now.

They'll be practicing their wings.

They grab onto a limb, and they simulate flight without leaving the limb.

That's got to be a 1,000-pound nest.

How long-- That thing's over 20 years old.

The nest is 20 years old?

Yeah.

According to the people that I've met on the lake, they've been in that tree for 20 years.

There's an eagle sitting right next to us.

Rubenstein: Oh.

Oh, yeah, I see him.

Man: Yeah, That's--that's the infamous bird.

[Screeching] Rubenstein: After the Bald Eagle Protection Act, did the bald eagles proliferate again?

Davis: Well, 5 years after Congress passed the act in 1940, in August 1945, uh, DDT was released to, uh, the general market.

We are living in what has been called the synthetic age, the age of the atom, the missile, the frozen TV dinner.

In the next hour, you will hear that this is also the age of the wormless apple and the calculated risk.

Since World War II, production of synthetic pesticides has increased fivefold.

[Engine chugging] [TV program music playing] TV announcer: Spray planes will drop half a million gallons of DDT on the enemy.

Man: Now, DDT was used heavily in the 1940s, '50s, mostly in World War II as a topical pesticide.

TV announcer: DDT-- the miracle insecticide that helped prevent epidemics in war-torn Europe and the Pacific areas, goes to work in an American community.

Man: They found that it was very effective for crops.

So during the fifties and sixties, it was heavily used as crop pesticides.

TV announcer: Today, these insecticides save millions of acres of crops.

Davis: So it affected fish.

It affected all sorts of bird life.

Uh, it was devastating.

[Engine whirring] Woman: Chemicals are changing the very nature of the world, the very nature of its life.

Now we know from... Man: Rachel Carson blew the whistle on all of that.

Man: Her book "Silent Spring" set fire to what still is one of the most explosive and enduring controversies of this century.

Man: That was a watershed moment where the science was put clearly out in front of people that, you know, DDT was having an effect on birds in particular and a negative effect and we have to deal with it.

Davis: It had an impact.

It raised awareness.

And, uh, interestingly enough, in 1963, the first nest census was conducted, and that's when we learned that there were only 487 nesting pairs in the Lower 48.

Nye: There was a lot of concern in the United States about the bald eagle and how could we let this happen to our national symbol?

You know, what--what does it say about a nation who allows their national symbol to go extinct?

Most of the northeastern states--Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire-- none of them had nesting eagles anymore because they couldn't produce eggshells that were thick enough.

It actually resulted in thinning of their eggshells, thick enough to hatch out their own young because the female was polluted with DDT.

This is from the Audubon Society of New York State in recognition of conservation efforts, protection, and conservation of the bald eagle.

I was always very interested in nature ever--ever since I was a little boy.

One time, I thought I wanted to be a butterfly doctor, finding out there wasn't such a thing.

And those are all real license plates.

That's for my motorcycle.

Those were all from vehicles, yeah.

I always knew I wanted to go into conservation, and even in my high school yearbook said "Headed for a career in conservation."

And sure enough, was lucky enough to get hired by the State of New York.

This is from the National Park Service, Upper Delaware Council, Distinguished Service Award for work on the Upper Delaware River and bald eagle work and... Around 1974, when--when the Endangered Species money came through, my boss came to me and said, "We got an opening "in the Big Game project dealing with bears "or we have an opening in the brand-new Endangered Species program dealing with bald eagles."

And what do you think I chose?

Somewhere around 2015, an eagle I banded as a nestling in 1977 was recovered dead at 38 years old, which is a longevity record, known longevity for a bald eagle.

A lot of this--you know, eagles create their own good vibes.

You know, like I said, I was just lucky to be part of it.

Well, before I retired in 2010, I was in charge of New York York State's Endangered Species program, a large portion of which was spent on bald eagle restoration in New York State, beginning back in the early 1970s.

[Footsteps crunching] [Birds chirping] I can just see the edge of the nest, just to the left of this big stem of this tree.

Tough to see if there's anything going on right under the nest here, but, uh, in these cases, we just have to climb and find out what's up there.

[Chirping continues] [Sawing] [Carabiners rattling] Man: We're gonna be banding eagles--the eaglets today.

The purpose of that is so we can track where they go.

We know that these birds can live for decades and travel, you know, huge distances, so this is really helpful.

[Carabiner clicking] Nye: You're on belay.

Man: You ready?

All right.

Headed up.

Good climb.

[Boots digging into tree trunk] Nye: When we got going in, in the early 1970s, we knew that bald eagles were in a critical state.

Eagles were never listed as endangered or threatened in Alaska because the habitat remained.

So, they had plenty of eagles to go around.

So, they graciously agreed, "Yes, you could come up and-- and take some of our eagles."

Then, it would be a matter of actually getting young eaglets to use in this hacking process, which literally means hand-rearing to independence.

Man: OK. All right.

Nye: So, the ideal age to get them would be about 6 weeks of age, about halfway through their nestling period.

And we said, "Well, that's good, but now how do we "go about even bringing eagles back to New York?

Can it be done?"

We had to charter jets to get back quickly and safely with our eaglets.

And then the basic technique involved building high-elevated nesting platforms, building an artificial nest structure on the top, enclosing it with bars... so that airflow and rain and everything else could go into the cage.

We had a one-way trap door where food could be provided to the eaglets.

They wouldn't see human beings, get sensitized being fed by humans.

We had a television camera out in front of these hacking towers that would actually keep an eye on the eagles.

We could see how they were doing.

We were collecting fish, feeding the eaglets, monitoring, babysitting what's going on.

It worked.

Those two eaglets fledged.

They did well.

We were happy.

Next year, we went up to 4 birds.

So, for the first 5 years, we released 21 eagles over those 5 years.

And from that point on, the natural population took off from there.

You're getting there, bro.

[Boots hitting tree] One nice thing about the cottonwoods, they have a lot of nice bark to grab onto.

Man: Yeah, as long as it doesn't do that.

Oh, you test it.

Nye: New York State has banded probably 1,700 eagles so we can see where they went, if they're surviving, where they end up nesting after they leave their own nest.

Very valuable data.

Nye: Got good news for us?

Man: Nobody home.

Nye: Bummer!

Nye: There's no doubt in my mind that the whole hacking and release programs in all the states that were involved in this was one of the major aspects leading up to the-- the complete delisting of the bald eagle from the Federal Endangered and Threatened Species Act in 2007.

Nye: Nicely done.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, the birds didn't cooperate.

It was too bad that it was maybe just a single chick, also, 'cause if there were more-- Yeah.

maybe we would have gotten lucky.

Lo and behold, today, what we have in-- in the Northeast U.S. is a conglomeration of eagles from different genetic heritages, but most of New York State's population are all of Alaskan origin, Alaskan genes, which makes me feel good.

Ha ha ha!

[Bald eagle screeching] Dawson: It is interesting to think about the ways we treat our national symbols, the bison, the bald eagle, um... both of whom have gone through near extinction processes to be resurrected in different ways.

The bald eagle is an example of a species that we have chosen to protect, and so it--it's a symbol of hope in a way, because it shows us that when people decide to act and make change at a big scale, then a species can be saved from extinction sometimes.

[Bald eagle screeching] It is really interesting to look at history through the lens of the objects or the creatures or the practices that we've chosen to perpetuate, that we've chosen to give some societal significance to.

And some of the earliest people to inhabit North America celebrated, revered, or recognized the significance of bald eagles.

You can look across almost any culture in--in North America and--and listen to elders speak about the importance of bald eagles in some way.

And so it's really cool to think about how deep our history with particular things goes and--and how that will teach us things about the future.

Benassi: The concept of conservation has always been that conservation was a luxury.

That we were gonna set aside a--a portion of an ecosystem because, "Oh, people will go get to visit that," rather than realizing that the Earth and all its life-sustaining systems are--are dependent on natural ecosystems.

And recently there's been this interest in a possible mine at the headwaters of the Chilkat River.

Woman: The Constantine Mine is now in the advanced stages of exploration, looking for copper, zinc... Woman: Constantine's new waste management discharge system is attempting to discharge their wastewater into the tributaries of the Chilkat River, Glacier Creek... Woman: Executives have dismissed the pollution concerns and said the mine development would be to the highest standards.

Benassi: The native people are very, very sensitive to the possibility of the mine polluting the river, and there's not a good track record in mining and fish.

And so, the community's very concerned about the possibility of it damaging their way of life.

Woman: And what I'm working on here is a little Chilkat weaving.

I--I come from a long line of Chilkat weavers.

My grandmother was my first teacher, and, uh, my daughters have started doing little weavings, so that-- that spans 5 generations.

Kaagwaantaan--that's the eagle of the wolf house.

So, we have the eagle and the wolf as our crest, and it shows who we are.

Like when, uh, we send an Olympic team, like, to Japan and they wear the, uh, American flag.

When we wear our regalia, we show who we are.

That eagle shows that we're Kaagwaantaan.

My regalia consists of the eagle headdress that I wear, the wolf tunic, which is over here, and it shows my crest.

Gooch is the Tlingit word for wolf, and this is the face of the wolf.

And when I introduce myself, I would say, [Speaking Tlingit].

"I am of the Eagle Nation."

[Bald eagle screeching] Man: You could say the raven and the eagles, they have an understanding out there to coexist.

We're opposites.

We're not enemies.

We come from a people that likes to keep things in balance.

So, uh, we hold each other up.

We really need each other.

We balance each other out.

Jones described our relationship like this: [Laughing] "I am the kite and he's the string that keeps me grounded."

[Laughter] I was born here.

Jones was born here, too, in this village.

And I've lived here most of my life, and the eagles are just part of our existence here.

It's like we're all in this together.

You know, you hear people say that, but we're in this Chilkat Valley together with the eagles.

[Bald eagle screeching] When I see an eagle, you know, I'll say hi to him or just greet him in some way or another and talk to him about whatever.

[Chuckles] Maybe I'm a little crazy, but they're part of our life here.

They are like neighbors or even family, extended family.

They live with us.

This time of year, every year, when you see them on the trees, when you see them out there on the flats, it makes home feel more like home, and it just gives us a comfort.

The salmon are the-- the thing that draws all of us here.

When we hear the founding fathers story of Klukwan, part of the reason they stayed here was because of the salmon.

And the eagles come here for the same reason that we do, because of the salmon.

And the threat of the Constantine Mine, it's--it's not only threatening the salmon... it's our whole way of living here.

The way our ancestors lived and the way that we were taught, it's so much a part of who we are, how we relate to the world even.

I'd see, uh, indigenous people around the world going through the same thing we're going through, losing their lifestyle because of what industry is in their area.

I'd say indigenous people are being used for the "progress" of industry.

They're running out of land on Earth.

We can't stop.

We can't quit.

It's home.

And now we wanna pass it on to our children and our grandchildren, and we hope that this still continues.

If the river gets contaminated and it kills the salmon, that would be the end of us.

That would be the end of the eagles here.

We'd all have to go someplace else, but where else could we go?

This is our home.

[Bald eagle screeching] The eagles are trying to get their two cents in.

[Chuckling] He said, "You're doing good, brother."

[Laughter] [Bald eagle screeching] Rubenstein, voice-over: While the eagles at Haines are facing a threat from mining... [Vehicle honking] in other parts of the U.S., the eagle has made a surprising comeback.

Woman: Eagle-eye birdwatchers are flocking to Central Park, hoping to get a glimpse of the newest celebrity to visit Manhattan.

Rover the bald eagle is huge with a 6-foot wingspan.

Rubenstein, voice-over: I'm visiting Central Park to try and catch a glimpse of this famous raptor in the heart of Gotham.

I wonder--they probably have a nest somewhere nearby, right?

Rubenstein: Hi.

Man: How are you?

David Rubenstein.

How are you?

Daniel Picard.

How are you?

Hi.

David Rubenstein.

Hi, nice to meet you.

So, are you birders?

Woman: Yeah.

Yes, we are.

And what's the pleasure of looking at birds?

Oh, the beauty of the animal.

The beauty--the beauty of the birds and-- OK.

So, have you ever seen a bald eagle in Central Park?

Yes.

Oh, sure.

Rubenstein: And are these bald eagles that got lost somewhere?

How did they wind up in Central Park?

Picard: Oh, no.

They don't get lost.

They don't get lost?

Picard: They know where they're going.

Yeah, they-- Why do they come here?

They come here because they--they eat fish, and they come down in the wintertime.

You know, they come down the Hudson, and this particular bald eagle came to the reservoir to--to fish.

Woman: Eagles do fly over Central Park from time to time, but the thing is, this one seems to really like it here and is sticking around.

Woman: Birders call the reservoir up at 90th Street a kind of cafeteria.

Don't worry, squirrel, eagles love smaller birds and fish.

You should be fine.

Rubenstein: Bald eagles are not birds that I normally would associate with Central Park.

Why do they come here or was it unusual for them-- Woman: This was very unusual.

It was very unusual.

And he came, like you said, 3 times a day.

Yeah.

he came in breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for, uh, 6 weeks.

And just the same fish?

And--and all the birders and all the photographers-- Fish, or... occasionally, uh, a gull, um, because, you know, they're big, big birds, they're fast, and sometimes the gulls cannot escape.

And do you think there are gonna be more and more bald eagles coming because more and more bird eagle--bald eagles are coming back into the world?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

There's more and more bald eagles every year, you know, beca--and they come down the Hudson River when it's--when it's frozen in the--in the wintertime, looking for fish in the river.

Did you know that the bald eagle was almost extinct years ago because of DDT?

McInerney: Yeah.

Picard: Correct.

So do you think they're coming back in droves now and actually we're having more than we maybe-- Picard: Oh, they're-- they're doing extremely well all over the country.

Uh, and west--east of the Mississippi, whether it's here or further south in, uh, in the Chesapeake Bay, for example, is the largest concentration of bald eagles east of the Mississippi.

Where?

Baltimore, that area.

Really?

Picard: Yes.

'Cause I'm from Baltimore.

I didn't even know that.

Yeah.

In the-- in the Chesapeake Bay.

Rubenstein: So we have the Baltimore Orioles, but this is the Baltimore Eagle, right?

Well, yeah, I guess so.

Ha ha ha!

Yeah.

Rubenstein, voice-over: The eagle has endured as a dynamic symbol since the early days of our founding.

Buck: Even though now the--the eagle is making a comeback, we call it the wombady.

The wombady is making a comeback.

You never know what's gonna happen.

And the eagle means so much to us and protecting that eagle means so much to us because they're a special creature and they need to be respected.

Rubenstein, voice-over: It survived two near extinction events before we realized that destroying the actual bird would in turn destroy a national symbol, and the freedom, individuality, and power it represents.

Diaz: For a symbol to live, it has to be flexible enough to mean many things to many people.

In the case of the eagle, it can be a form of freedom, individualism, it can also be the kind of like intensity of predatory violence... and really what that means to be in a dominant role, but the eagle is no longer the symbol of overweening strength and dominance but of something that is, in fact, needing protection.

Nye: Well, even though eagles are a great success story, things could turn around so quickly.

As we've seen in the past, things did turn around quickly, so like everything else, we have to remain vigilant to try and make sure that we're not losing track of what's going on out there.

Dawson: It's interesting to think about the history of the bald eagle, how it helped shape who we are now, but how is the bald eagle going to help shape what we become in the future?

How will we choose to continue to learn from the eagles as we figure out our path forward?

Rubenstein, voice-over: The spirit and resilience of this iconic bird mirrors many of the values Americans see in themselves.

The story of the American bald eagle is deeply intertwined with issues of patriotism and environmentalism and teaches us how these two ideas, often in conflict, can co-exist.

Announcer: Explore more about "Iconic America" at pbs.org/iconicamerica.

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