Two years ago, lower-48 Endangered Species Act protection (except for one population in the Southwest) for bald eagles was discontinued. This came about because of the success of that protection, as eagle populations have rebounded spectacularly. The USF&WS has developed new rules for issuing permits to take bald and golden eagles under these new circumstances. "Taking" includes killing, wounding, hazing, nest removal, etc. The official Federal Register document with such definitions is available at http://www.fws.gov/policy/library/E9-21589.pdf (it is 43 pp long), and a much shorter summary fact sheet from the agency is at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/protect/fnlpermitregs_qas.html . Some are glad to see eagles will still receive high-level protection, and others fear that protection--especially from commercial interests like power companies--will now become more difficult. Perhaps both are right. You can read the fine print in the sources above. I dug up a couple of critiques for the sake of balance, one made available by the Tulsa Audubon Society, at http://www.tulsaaudubon.org/eagle-take-comments-gary-siftar.htm , and another from the Environmental Defense Fund, at http://www.abcbirds.org/birdconservationalliance/campaigns/esa/ed_esa.pdf I have seen grim guys with holstered pistols come into the university museum to scrutinize all the eagles in the collection and all the associated paperwork; they do, or did, this yearly. When you consider this diligence, and then run into a photo of young eagles bouncing around on a backyard trampoline right here in Ohio http://www.ohiobirds.org/news.php?News_ID=172 , some cognitive dissonance is bound to ensue. Eagle rights for all, Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]