On the Hunt

But someone in the valley doesn't want the birds there.

In February, the Fish and Wildlife Service discovered two eagles that died within several days and several miles of one another. The deaths were no coincidence, says Chris Brong, resident agent in charge in Oregon for FWS' Office of Law Enforcement. Lab tests showed the eagles had eaten sheep carrion covered with fenthion, an illegal pesticide. When it's ingested by a bald eagle, fenthion overstimulates the nervous system, either killing the bird immediately or rendering it too dizzy to fly.

The incidents in February were not the first in the valley. Every couple of years since 1991, FWS has found eagles it believes were deliberately poisoned-a total of 17 birds in 13 years. Lab tests on 11 of the birds showed fenthion was the cause. Whoever is putting fenthion on sheep carcasses is "definitely targeting the bald eagle," Brong says. The culprit is probably a farmer who believes the birds are preying on baby lambs, though "it's pretty hard to imagine an eagle picking up something that's twice its weight," Brong says. "It's just not true."

Bald eagles are protected by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the 1940 Bald Eagle Protection Act and the 1973 Endangered Species Act. This use of fenthion violates state rules and the 1996 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, which gives the Environmental Protection Agency authority to prohibit harmful pesticides. Bald eagles have made a major comeback, and the birds soon might be removed from the threatened species list. But the Oregon poisonings don't help.

Those responsible could face up to five years in jail and $600,000 in fines. But first, FWS must find them. Last spring, Brong decided to make the eagle poisonings a priority. "It doesn't happen on a monthly basis," he says. "But if you look at it over a 10-year period or even a 20-year period and you see a certain trend, you realize that trend isn't going to go away."

Because the poisonings happen sporadically and no evidence clearly points to a suspect, the chances of finding the guilty party through surveillance are slim. "It becomes extremely labor-intensive to try to target people who may be suspects and then to watch them and hope to see them putting out a sheep carcass with pesticide," Brong says.

Instead, FWS must rely on the public for information. Brong worked with environmental groups to post a $4,000 reward for tips, and he issued news releases that were picked up by several newspapers in the area in March.

With a list of suspects in hand, the next step is to research and prioritize. "When you have a crime where you're not sure who the suspects are, you try to target who you're going to start watching and really checking into their backgrounds so you can focus your resources," Brong says.

Brong has been stationed in Oregon for only one year. He wasn't the first person to note that the eagle killings fit a pattern. "I think a lot of people connected the dots, but they either didn't have the authority or the independence to decide we need to spend some time on this," he says. Now that the investigation finally is under way, Brong just hopes to find the culprit before more eagles die.