PEMBROKE PINES
Eagles' nest may get roots
Plans are in place to make a family of American bald eagles in West Broward more at home.

EILEEN SOLER / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD 
    Special to The Miami Herald
Pembroke Pines could make the unlikely urban roost of an American bald eagle family on city-owned land a permanent nesting option.

'The goal is to protect the eagles and the environment,' Mayor Frank Ortis said.

Ortis met in April with area bird watchers and wildlife protectionists who took stewardship of the eagle nest soon after it was reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission last spring by Silver Trail Middle School teacher Kelly Smith.

CHICK IN NEST

Photographs taken April 9, 2008, showed one chick in the nest.

The eagle parents, the first known to reproduce offspring in Broward County since 1972, hatched two more eaglets in mid-January.

By late February, wildlife advocates began to gather and observe the nest just 210 feet from Pines Boulevard about a mile east of the Everglades. Ortis said a city ordinance would make the 70-acre forest of Australian pine and melaleuca trees a wildlife sanctuary.

The city already manages a rookery at Taft Street and Palm Avenue and the Chapel Trail Nature Preserve, a public 450-acre wetland that is home to more than 120 species of wildlife. Ortis said city workers first saw the pair of eagles at the Pines Boulevard site two years before they reproduced.

'And the experts say more eagles may come. We want to create an ordinance to help that happen -- we need a long-term goal,' Ortis said.

Ortis said a committee will be formed soon to advise the city about how to protect the area and to come up with an immediate plan to trim thick vegetation around the nest. The pine land is vulnerable to wildfire during the dry season.

The American bald eagle was placed on the nation's endangered species list in 1967. It was removed from the list in April 2007 and in April 2008 was removed from Florida's list of endangered wildlife.

But the iconic national bird continues to be protected by the Golden Eagle Protection Act and the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In 1963, only 417 nesting pairs were recorded in the 48 contiguous states. Today, about 11,000 exist -- 1,280 in Florida. National Bald Eagle Management Guidelines recommend that human activities occur no closer than 330 feet from any nest. Offenders can receive stiff fines or even jail time.

Ken Schneider, a retired physician and bird watcher who began monitoring the eagles on his website http://www.rosyfinch.com after seeing eagles mate near his Miramar home, had already started to communicate with the city and county, state and national wildlife groups about protecting the site when news of the nest began to spread.

CLASS AWARD

Smith's science class won a Broward County Fair award for its study about how nearby traffic conditions affected eagle activity. Later, parents of nearby West Broward High School were sent notices about a traffic-light installation that was stalled until the baby eagles matured enough to live on their own.

Soon, when newspaper and television reports made the eagles celebrities, Schneider, fellow bird watchers and members of the South Florida Audubon Society began keeping vigil at the site and educating onlookers.

'People are just fascinated, so we became traffic cops, educators and second parents to the eagles,' said Trisha Norton of Weston on a recent Sunday evening.

Pembroke Pines police and the city's Public Works Department responded by erecting a fence, placing orange cones along the easement and posting eagle-watching rules.

Currently, the baby eagles, named Justice and Hope, are flying away from the nest while the parents have backed off -- likely to let their offspring learn to thrive independently.

Doug Young, president of the South Florida Audubon Society, said Schneider, Ortis, Smith and Pembroke Pines City Manager Charles Dodge, will receive Eaglewatch Awards during the organization's May meeting on Tuesday at Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood.

Two middle school and two high school students also will be recognized for outstanding projects in the 2009 Broward County Science Fair.

<< Previous Page