Stop the Removal of the Norfolk Botanical Garden Eagle Nest

There has been talk of removing the eagles' nest that has been at the Norfolk Botanical Garden since 2003. The Norfolk International Airport reported an incident after a female eagle was killed by an airplane. Now they are claiming the eagles are a safety risk. I researched the strikes on the Norfolk Airport. Since 1990 they have has 505 strikes. Of those 505 strikes 4 were eagles and I do recall seeing 1 was a fox. I visited this Garden and Airport just recently. The nest is neither in the flight path nor within 1000 feet of the airport. This airport is surrounded by woods and water. Eagles are not the vast majority in the area. There are so many other birds that pose a bigger threat to the Airport than the eagles. The runway ends in front of a body of water. It seems to me that gulls and other water fouls pose more of a risk. What is the airport planning on doing about them? Why are these eagles being singled out? Is it because they are our National bird? Do you really believe removing this nest will prevent them from building someone else around the airport? As I said, it is surrounded by woods. Are you going to continuously push these birds out of the nests they build until they are no longer near the airport? By doing that it will force them to lay eggs somewhere else and abandon their eggs. Don’t you think this will effect the growth of the eagle population in the area? Is that what Virginia wants, no eagles? If this gets approved, who is to say that other airports will see this and propose the same complaint? Are we going to give a permit to every airport to push these beautiful creatures out? Till eventually their numbers dwindle to almost nothing, AGAIN?

 

There is a case in Sitka Alaska where a nest was removed due to safety reasonâ€Â. They thought the problem had improved. After removal of the nest a plane struck a seagull and sucked it into the engine.

 

I would like to point out that there are viewers of this nest worldwide. This is not just a handful of people. Last year since the mother was struck the Wildlife Center of Virginia took the NBG eaglets in. By taking and caring for the eaglets, they received 300,000 in donations from eagle viewers. That’s not including the items sent to them that weren’t cash. If you add that to the amount the Botanical Gardens received, it was nearly half a million dollars to the Commonwealth of Virginia. On top of that the gardens received donations for the Lady Liberty eagle tribute last year. One eagle nest brought in short term jobs to the area and countless visitors. Those visitors not only brought in money to the gardens, it brought in money for businesses, ie hotels, restaurants etc. I know I spent a nice chunk of money visiting them this year. If it weren’t for the eagles, I doubt I ever would’ve gone to the area. Amazing how Virginia benefited from that one tragedy.

I think you will find not one viewer is against keeping these eagles safe. No one wants to go through that pain again.

 

The nest has served as a educational opportunity to so many. This nest has raised 19 eaglets successfully even though there were a few tragedies along the way.

 

Please reconsider removing the nest for purely political reasons. Relocation is not the answer.