I know that there are bombs dropping in Kosovo and all that, but on Sunday my partner and I went on a long walk around Green Lake to celebrate the sunny weather and to look for the Bald Eagle nest in Woodland Park. Observant regulars at Green Lake have probably noticed the Bald Eagles that have been hanging out in the tops of trees on Duck Island and elsewhere around the lake. This February they selected a fork in the top of a tall fir-tree in lower Woodland Park and began building a nest platform. They join several Bald Eagles that nest on and around the Seattle area, including pairs in Discovery Park, Mercer Island, and West Seattle.

Personally I am awed by these urban eagles. I grew up on the East Coast, where Bald Eagles were essentially wiped out. The only eagles I ever saw back east were the one lonely adult in the Philadelphia Zoo and a juvenile in the New Jersey pine barrens many years ago. The idea that there would be Bald Eagles nesting in a city was unthinkable.

More than just an awesome sight, these urban eagles are an environmentalist victory. Thirty years ago the population of Bald Eagles was in serious decline and every nest was closely watched to see if the fragile DDT-weakened eggs within would hatch or be crushed under their parents weight. Ecologists openly discussed whether our national bird would survive the next few decades.

Now the number of Bald Eagles has recovered to the point where there is talk of removing them from the endangered species list. All it took was the will to remove the cause of their decline--DDT--from the environment.

If we can save the Bald Eagle, we can save other endangered species, like the Northwest's endangered salmon. Certainly the causes of decline of salmon are more complex than a single pesticide, but we know what the causes are and we know that they, like the Bald Eagle, can be restored.

All it takes is the will.