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By Ryan McDaniels

 Stories abound this week of Eastern Coyotes developing new habitats in Boston neighborhoods such as the North End and Jamaica Plain. What a great election year story for Progressives!  Huh?  Yes, coyotes in the city are just another sign of good government; unless of course, you’re the municipal official now charged with developing a coyote abatement strategy. From a bird’s-eye view, wildlife’s encroachment on our urban enclaves is a reminder that a generation of aggressive government regulation helped stave off the extinction of the majestic American Bald Eagle. This war hawk’s resurgence is a reminder that our country, when faced with a crisis, even a symbolic one, can unite behind an activist government to implement policies that will allow our nation to soar again, along with the symbol of our indomitable spirit.

Unlike other endangered species, this great raptor was not hunted to near extinction for its valuable fur or meat. Rather, years of wonton neglect of our environment led to the gradual decline of this hearty bird’s habitat.  In rivers and streams across the lower 48 states lived the fish and small animals that this efficient winged predator relied on for its nutrients. As theses fisheries became laced with carcinogens, so too did the birds that fed and bred there. The main culprit was DDT, an agricultural pesticide that contributed to eagles laying eggs with shells too thin to incubate their young without breaking.

In the Northeast, where DDT was less of a problem, fish were vanishing from the ecosystem due to a hundred years of using our great rivers as factory fuel rather than for replenishing the food chain. The industrial revolution’s side effects were as ominous as the Eagle was once ubiquitous. By the late 1960’s an estimate of only 420 nesting pairs of bald eagles were left in the United States. At a time when many Americans were beginning to doubt our omnipotence as a society the plight of the bald eagle was just one more harbinger used by our critics to illustrate the failings of unfettered capitalism.  But, our countrymen of that era understood that Americans use symbols to demonstrate national strength and unity. The flag and the eagle are not tools developed to pit one party’s patriotism against another.  They are symbols of national identity not division…especially, when one of these are on the brink of disappearing. ……READ MORE“