Washington D.C. -- Forty years ago the bald eagle teetered on the verge of extinction. But now, thanks to the efforts of Navy and Marine Corps personnel, in partnership with Federal and state agencies and private groups, the bald eagle has returned to sustainable levels.

In an announcement made on June 28 by the Department of the Interior, the bald eagle was removed from the Federal list of threatened and endangered species.

Although the bald eagle is the national bird of the United States, by 1963 there were only 417 “nesting pairs” in the continental United States. The species had been ravaged by illegal shootings and threats to its habitat, including the introduction of the chemical Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT).

The critical state of the bald eagle population prompted lawmakers to take action, and the bald eagle became one of the first species protected by the Endangered Species Act. It also prompted Navy and Marine Corps installations to implement programs to preserve the habitat of the bald eagle as part of their overall conservation efforts.

"Protection of bald eagle habitats on our Navy installations has been, and will remain, a priority item in all our property management considerations," emphasizes Capt. Judy Smith, commanding officer for Naval Support Activity South Potomac.

"Over the past several years, our staff environmentalists have worked diligently and achieved great success in providing and protecting safe havens for bald eagles at Indian Head and Dahlgren," said Smith, who also serves as the installation commander for both Naval Support Facility Indian Head, Md., and Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, Va.

"Their efforts have undoubtedly contributed to the growing number of eagles now resident along the Potomac River watershed between Maryland and Virginia, just a few miles from our nation's capitol," added Smith.

Those efforts are readily apparent at the Indian Head Naval Base, where there are 10 active nests, managed in accordance with a Bald Eagle Management Plan, developed in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service.

According to Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Installations and Environment) BJ Penn, natural resource conservation projects such as these are an essential part of the Navy’s overall environmental policies.

“Active conservation efforts on our installations preserve natural resources for not only for future training, but for future generations,” Penn said.

The bald eagle is just one of more than 120 threatened and endangered species managed on Navy and Marine Corps installations worldwide.