Symbolic duo at home for 25 years
Woodlands’ growth hasn’t scared off a pair of bald eagles
With its new island mansions, gleaming office towers and upcoming 15-story Ritz Carlton condos, Lake Woodlands’ east shoreline is prime property for some of The Woodlands’ most well-to-do.
Thanks to wildlife photographers, collaboration with developers and a particularly resilient pair of bald eagles, it’s also prime real estate for the United States’ national symbol.
It’s been 25 years since the now-famous pair of bald eagles were first reported in what would soon become The Woodlands’ East Shore by Houston Chronicle nature columnist Gary Clark.
That same year, President Bill Clinton proposed that bald eagles be taken off the endangered species list for the first time in 26 years.
Before then, the national pride-invoking sight of the eagle’s eight-foot wingspan was nearly unheard of in Houston.
When the bald eagle was declared the nation’s symbol in 1782, there were 100,000 to 500,000 in the U.S.
By 1963, they were down to a low of 417.
One of the stealthiest culprits in their decline was DDT, a chemical used as insecticide in coastal and wetland areas. Instead of directly poisoning birds, the chemical accumulated in their bodies, Houston Audobon’s Mary Anne Morris said.
“What scientists didn’t realize at that time was that DDT stays in the food web,” Morris said. “It interrupts the body’s ability to produce calcium, so mother eagles were producing eggs that had really thinned egg shells that were getting crushed and not hatching.”
DDT was banned in 1972, and by 1995 there were 40 nesting bald eagles in Texas. But the birds’ signature 2-ton nests were almost never found near people.
That was part of what made The Woodlands’ pair such a spectacle, Clark said.
By 2005, the birds had moved to a more prominent nest in the new East Shore neighborhood, and a small crowd gathered regularly to catch a glimpse of the pair and their new eaglets each spring.
As research grew around bald eagles’ willingness to be near people, a rift began forming among local devotees.
Some advocated for secrecy, worrying that increased public interest would cause too much disturbance for the birds.
Others, including Save The
Woodlands Eagles founder John Randolph Scott, thought awareness was key to their protection.
“This idea that you’ve got to isolate them and stay away from them was causing more trouble than if we were around them, because then nobody knows about them to care about them,” Scott said. “Getting them used to people, that would keep them here in the community.”
Awareness grows
New developments were quickly taking shape around the eagles’ East Shore home.
By the time Hughes Landing was built in 2013, Scott had created the Save the Woodlands Eagles page to raise awareness.
“I framed out what I wanted to do because the development company had just torn down a lot of trees preparing the east side for development,” Scott said.
The eagles nest-hopped several times before settling across from the Woodlands United Methodist Church, where the nest has stayed for 10 years. Even with cranes in sight overhead and Hughes Landing continuing to grow just yards away, the eagles came back each year.
‘Here for the long haul’
The famous pair has even taken to using the Methodist church’s roof to help fledglings learn to fly, Scott said.
“They’re here for the long haul,” Scott said. “One year when they were building their (parking) garage, the ground was shaking … it didn’t seem to bother them.”
Howard Hughes’ environmental manager Fred LeBlanc wanted the eagles to stick around, and the developer created safe zones around the nests, Howard Hughes’ Patrick Stites said.
When the eagles settled into their current nest, the developer constructed fencing around it and labeled the area a non commercial zone.
The builder also worked toward limiting noise and other disturbances near the nest, Stites said.
“It was super important to residents, and it’s also pretty important to our mission statement,” Stites said.
“We try to convey ourselves as someone who’s very naturefocused … the community was very adamant that those laws were conserved, but also we felt that we had a reputational
stake in making sure that we did not disrupt them.”
Pollution and habitat
Bald eagles were taken off the endangered species list in 2007.
While they’re protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, pollution and habitat threats remain, Morris said.
As eagles begin populating urban areas from Buffalo Bayou to Hermann Park, the role of
local residents in conservation is larger than ever, Morris said.
Bird enthusiasts and developers worked together to preserve an eagle’s nest on the University of Houston campus as its medical center was built, Morris said.
“It’s public pressure to make sure that the developer does what’s right,” Morris said.
Residents can also increasingly help conservationists directly by using sites such as eBird and iNaturalist, which crowdsources bald eagle nest data for the Texas Natural Diversity Database. Over 4,000 research papers have cited iNaturalist data since it was founded in 2008, outreach and community coordinator Tony Iwane said.
‘Respect and love’
“I think you can go a long way just helping people build empathy for nonhuman life, and I think that can also have an impact on conservation,” Iwane said. “People who are aware of what’s around them and how their decisions may affect the organisms that they’ve come to really respect and love.”
Eagles can live up to about 30 years, and it’s unclear whether either of the eagles nesting in The Woodlands’ loblolly pines are the same as those that were first spotted 25 years ago.
Either way, the pair and other eagles nearby have become a source of national and local pride as the birds increasingly coexist with humans, Clark said.
“It’s wonderful because when people have nesting bald eagles in their neighborhood, oh boy, they’re protected,” Clark said. “People love the eagles.”