Cl2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 18,1981 We learn so much about birds and animals on the tarm, but do you know anything about America's national bird - the bald eagle? Settle back and read all about this proud bird... The bald eagle, now an en dangered species throughout most of the country, was adopted as the central figure of the great seal of the United States by the second Continental Congress on June 20, 1782, sue years after a committee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jef ferson was named to recommend an official seal for the newly mdependent country. “By next June, the bald eagle will have served as our national bird and symbol for 200 years,” said Dr. Jay D. Hair, executive vice president of the National Wildlife Federation. "An eagle bicentennial will remind all Americans of our wildlife hentage -a priceless natural resource that we must manage wisely it it is to survive-and it will also remind us of the virtues-the strength and courage-that the eagle sym bolizes.” On the national seal and also the Presidential seal the eagle carries an olive branch, signifying the country’s desire for peace, in one talon. In the other it holds a bundle of 13 arrows, symbolizing the willingness of the 13 colonies to fight for freedom. NWF has asked President Reagan to declare the "Year ot the Eagle” in a Presidential proclamation, Hair said, and is now awaiting word from the White House on the President’s response. The high-powered committee appointed to develop a national seal, which included two future Presidents, was created on July 4, 1776, the same day that the colonies declared their in dependence from England. Ben jamin Franklin later said he op posed the choice of the eagle on grounds that it was a cowardly creature of "bad moral character” that stole its food from other birds. In a letter he wrote m 1784, Franklin said he had favored the turkey gobbler as the national bird despite the fact that turkeys were sometimes "vain and silly.” Zoologists dispute Franklin’s contention that the bald eagle, a bird found only in North America, is a "rank coward.” After years of study by three committees, William Barton, a Philadelphia expert on heraldry (and brother ot Benjamin Barton, a well-known naturalist), submitted a design to Charles Thomson, secretary ot the Continental Congress, and Thomson presented his drawing, with some changes, to the Congress. The U.S. was by no means the first country to use an eagle-there Grubby The Bald are more than 50 species ot the bird worldwide-as its symbol. Eagles appeared m the heraldry ot Mesopotamia more than 3,000 years before Christ and served as emblems tor Roman emperors, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and Peter the Great. Ornithologists believe the bald eagle soared over all ot the present "lower 48” states when the first Europeans arrived on this con tinent. Their numbers declined steadily as settlers pushed back the frontier and destroyed their wilderness habitat, then tell sharply in the 1950 s and 60s as DDT, dieldren, and other man made pesticides contaminated their food supplies. The in discriminate use ot these deadly pesticides was outlawed in the early 19705. Shooting has also taken its toll ot the “bird ot treedom.” Until 1940, when Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act, some states actually paid bounties tor car casses ot the predatory "varmit” bird. The federal protection law was reinforced by the Endangered Species Acts ot 1966 and 1973 and by a campaign by the National Wildlife Federation to stamp out illegal shooting of the bird. Since 1972 the NWF has paid 13 J5OO rewards tor information leading to the conviction ot eagle killers-a program that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now duplicates as a deterrent to eagle poaching. Since the national Bicentennial ot 1976, when it T Eagle selves '*'sf The Bald Eagle established the NWF Raptor In formation Center to serve as a clearing-house tor data on eagles and other birds ot prey, the Federation has also acquired and placed under the protection ot wildlife agencies eagle roosting sites in tive states. Each January the NWF conducts a bald eagle census in the lower 48” states which is considered to be the most thorough count conducted m the U S. The Federation has also lobbied and been involved in several lawsuits m efforts to safeguard habitat tor the nation’s symbol. The bald eagle is now listed as ■ endangered” in all but five ot the lower 48 states. In Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington, and Oregon it is listed as “threatened.” In the 49th state, Alaska, bald eagles are plentiful and in the 50th, Hawaii, they are non-existent. SCHUYLKILL HAVEN Members ot local 4-H clubs par ticipated in the Annual Schuylkill County 4-H Achievement Contests in demonstrations, public speaking, and horse and dairy bowl categories. The two bowl contests include quizzing teams on the care ot horses and dairy cattle. The Dairy Bowl contest was won by Allen Daubert, Robert Reed and