We Can Live Hand-In-Wing
There’s no reason people and eagles can’t be neighbors, as long as the people mind their manners, according to a “Bagpipes” reader from Kettle Falls, Wash.
“It’s been my experience that the eagles are not particularly bothered by human presence,” said Gary Garrison. “The main thing is not to harass them or shoot them or anything like that.”
Some biologists fear that eagle-viewing excursion boats at Wolf Lodge Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene may disturb the feeding habits of eagles there. Garrison bases his views in part on experiences he’s had in Alaska.
“I’ve seen eagles literally by the dozens at the city dump at Dutch Harbor, Alaska,” he said. “I think the main thing is they get used to people. They perch on the rooftops up there, right in town. They think of eagles up there like we think of crows down here.
“I personally know where there are three nest sites right along Highway 395, one of them within 100, 150 feet of a busy junction. The main thing is people shouldn’t harass them, and watching them isn’t harassing them.
“I’m concerned that the underlying issue here is that people think animals and birds like this need to have quiet, out-of-the way, primitive places, but with as many people as we’ve got we just have to learn to live together, and eagles get used to us just as we will get used to them. The people in Dutch Harbor are certainly used to eagles up there.”
Marching to a different, deadly drummer
Assuming Garrison is right, and humans can get along with eagles, can humans get along with humans?
At the national level there is encouraging news. The FBI says the number of murders committed in the United States dropped 12 percent during the first half of 1995. That’s the sharpest decline in the 35 years the FBI has compiled six-month statistics.
That’s nationally.
In Spokane, by comparison, we are about to wrap up the worst homicide year on record in the city - 21 and counting. And the alcohol-fueled holidays are still ahead.
Why is Spokane so out of sync with the nation? What’s going on here that could explain such a radically different trend with respect to criminal carnage?
Your ideas and suggestions are welcome. See the phone numbers and addresses below.
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.