Eagles at Onondaga Lake

Once again, eagles have returned to Onondaga Lake this winter. They are simultaneously a cause for hope, and for concern.

Eagles are a native to the area. We know this because the oral history of the Haudenosaunee describes an eagle at the top of the Great Tree of Peace.

Widespread use of the pesticide DDT decimated the population of eagles in the United States in the mid-20th century. Eagles were declared an endangered species in 1967, in a law that preceded the Endangered Species Act. Fewer than 25 breeding pairs remaining in New York State in 1995, according to Mike Allen, a retired state wildlife technician who spent his career helping to restore the eagle population.

Now there are 25 eagles at Onondaga Lake.

Ironically, it is the outflow of the sewage treatment plant for the city of Syracuse that creates the open water at the south end of Onondaga Lake, which attracts the eagles when all other lakes are frozen over. Less worrisome than the sewage effluent, treatment of which has been upgraded significantly in the last decade, are the fish that the eagles are eating out of Onondaga Lake.

While Onondaga County has cleaned up its act, removal of the toxic sediments of Onondaga Lake by Honeywell will not begin until 2012 at the earliest. The Onondaga Nation has expressed concern that the planned removal will not do enough to remove contamination from the lake. Mercury in Onondaga Lake bioaccumulates up the food chain, into the fish, and into the eagles that eat the fish. A 2008 study of songbirds at Onondaga Lake identified mercury concentrations high enough to cause reproductive concern.

Sean Kirst, a reporter for the Post-Standard, has been following the story of the eagles. Check out his interview today with Guy Baldassarre, a wildlife biolgist with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, as well as his interview with Henry Lickers (Seneca), former Co-chair of the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force and now a consultant to the Onondaga Nation.

According to Henry, the eagles have "come to you for a very specific purpose: They want you to be ever vigilant in a quest for a good environment and a good place to live." At the very least, they are drawing our attention back to the lake and its contamination.