Jody Victor: Wildlife researchers in Canada and the United States began to study Bald Eagle populations around the Great Lakes in the 1960s. Programs were initiated to monitor chemical contaminant levels throughout the Great Lakes Basin during this era. by the early 1980s, actions were underway to promote the recovery of the Bald Eagles. These included public education, protection strategies, monitoring active territories and nest sites, building nest platforms, and monitoring eaglets in the nest. Eaglets were studied through annual counts, banding for future identification and ongoing monitoring for contaminant levels in the blood of eaglets and in unhatched eggs.
The Southern Ontario Bald Eagle Monitoring Project, which continues today, is a joint effort between the Canadian wildlife Service, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Bird Studies Canada, community organizations, and volunteer nest monitors and landowners. Dedicated volunteers provide invaluable data and energy to the project, year after year.
Biologists from the Canadian Wildlife Service, a federal wildlife agency, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, a provincial body, joined with volunteers and landowners to monitor Bald Eagles on the Canadian side of Lake Erie, lake St. Clair, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. Bird Studies Canada, a non-government organization, joined the project in 1996 and now helps coordinate monitoring activities.
The encouraging recovery of Bald Eagle populations in the Great Lakes region could not have happened without the tremendous support of private individuals. The studies and monitoring activities rely on volunteers who record the status of Bald Eagle nests each breeding season, and the landowners who allow access to nest sites on their private property.