HARRISBURG, PA — The Pennsylvania Game Commission is seeking public input on a draft bald eagle management plan, which can be reviewed at www.portal.state.pa.us (click on “Game Commissoin” and “Draft Eagle management Plan.”) Public comments on the agency's eagle management plan will be accepted until March 3 via the website, or by mail to Eagle Management Plan, Game Commission, 2001 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9797.

Developed by biologists with the agency's Wildlife Diversity Division, the eagle management plan establishes management goals through 2019. The mission of the plan is to increase and maintain bald eagle populations in suitable habitat that contributes to sustaining its population throughout the Commonwealth for the foreseeable future, while providing recreational viewing opportunities for the citizens of Pennsylvania.

"The criteria to consider eagles recovered is a self-perpetuating nesting population of at least 150 pairs with a productivity rate of at least 1.2 eaglets per successful nest and 60 percent of known nests successful over a five-year period," said Dan Brauning, Wildlife Diversity Division chief and co-author of the draft management plan. "This objective is expected to be reached by 2012, if the recent population trend continues.”

The game commission currently classifies the bald eagle as a threatened species in Pennsylvania. They were removed from the federal endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007, because delisting goals had been achieved.