The Lacey Act

• First introduced in 1900, the Lacey Act made it illegal to take or disturb a bald eagle, its egg or nest under penalty of federal law. The Lacey Act was formed to control the population of the bald eagle, which had been dwindling since as early as 1870. Bald eagles continue to be protected under the Lacey Act, despite their removal from the Endangered Species List in 2007.
  
  

Eagle Act

• Forty years after the Lacey Act, in 1940, the U.S. legislature passed the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, or 16 U.S.C. 668-668c, aka The Eagle Act. Under this law, both bald and golden eagles were protected from any human interaction that would potentially lower their population, including the illegal capture of the bird for sale or transport or any small disturbance or capture of their nest, which could threaten the eagle's livelihood. Like the Lacey Act, the Eagle Act is still in place to protect the bald eagle.
  
  

Endangered Species List

• The bald eagle was first added to the Endangered Species List in 1972, the same year that the pesticide DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was banned by the federal government. The bald eagle's placement on the list was due in part to DDT poisoning as well as hunting and loss of habitat. Just a decade earlier, in 1963, only 417 breeding pairs were alive in the lower 48 states, prompting an immediate "endangered" status. Over the years, however, the bald eagle's status changed to "threatened."
  
  

Removal from the Endangered List in 2007

• In June 2007 bald eagles were taken off the federal Endangered Species List because their numbers had significantly increased to 9,789 breeding pairs in the lower United States. The bald eagle's removal from the list is significant in U.S. history since only 1 percent of the 13,000-plus species are ever taken down from the list.