Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Owners, Bald Eagle May Fly off Endangered List, 06/13/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june07/eagle_6-13.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What does it mean when an animal is endangered or threatened?

2. What do you know about the bald eagle?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why is the bald eagle in the news right now?

The U.S. government has until June 29 to formally decide if the bald eagle will be removed from the list of endangered and threatened species, a feat for a bird that teetered on the brink of extinction 40 years ago.

2. How many pairs of adult eagles exist in the United States? How does that differ from how many existed prior to the creation of the Endangered Species Act?

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is charged with protecting the eagles, there are currently 9,789 pairs of adult bald eagles in the 48 states of the continental United States. Adult eagles are 4 to 5 years old.

This is a major increase from the estimated 417 pairs of eagles that existed in 1963 prior to the creation of the Endangered Species Act.

3. Why were eagles in such trouble before the ESA?

At the time, eagles were facing possible extinction due to a variety of factors including DDT pesticide poisoning, reduction of habitat and poaching. DDT, a pesticide which once in the water and food chain caused eagle eggs to crack and weaken, was banned in 1972.

4. If the bald eagle is delisted how many years will it be monitored by the federal government? How does this compare to other species?

Once a species is delisted it, as well as any potential threats to the species, must be monitored by the federal government for a minimum of five years. If the bald eagle is delisted, the monitoring will continue for 20 years, according to FWS spokeswoman Valerie Fellows.

5. What federal laws will continue to protect the bald eagle if it is delisted?

But the delisting will not end the government interest or regulation of the predator. Eagles will continue to be covered under two federal laws, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which was enacted in 1940 to prevent the over-hunting of the eagle for its feathers, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The bird also can be protected on the state level, if that state maintains its threatened status.

6. Why must the federal government decide now whether to delist the eagle?

The decision about the listing of the eagle comes as a result of a lawsuit by Minnesota landowner Edmund Contoski who wanted to build a residential subdivision on his property but was prohibited because of eagle nests in the area.

Under the law, Contoski cannot build within a 330 feet of an active eagle's nest. An active nest is one that is visited each year by eagles. Inactive nests are those that are not used at the moment but may be inhabited later.

In 2006 the Pacific Legal Foundation, a California-based legal organization that advocates property rights, won a federal lawsuit, Contoski v. Kempthorne, that forced FWS to decide whether to remove the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act.

7. How has the environmental community reacted to possible eagle delisting?

Many in the environmental movement hailed the possible delisting, saying it shows that government action to protect a species can save it from extinction, but added that continued federal regulation is needed to ensure the eagle population remains strong.

 

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. What do you think? Should the federal government delist the bald eagle? Why or why not?

2. Look at the arguments of Edmund Contoski, who is prohibited from building on his land due to active eagle nests. Should he be allowed to disturb eagles on his property? How do you balance the rights of property owners with the need of the federal government to protect habitats?

3. Research other species that have been successfully delisted from the Endangered Species Act such as the Yellowstone grizzly bear and the peregrine falcon. Compare their delisting to the possible delisting of the bald eagle. How are they similar and different? Compare the habit of each species as well as the post-delisting management plan.

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of the topics in this exercise providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.