Page 15 - Abacoa Community News - January '20

Abacoa, Page 15
Town Of Jupiter News Northern Notes

By Ilan Kaufer, Town Of Community Loss
Jupiter Councilman Over Thanksgiving, our community lost a great leader Bald Eagles
Happy New Year! in René Friedman. She was the founder of FAU’s Lifelong
I hope you had a Learning Institute and someone who gave so much to our Jupiter By Katie Roundtree,
wonderful holiday season and surrounding communities. She will be greatly missed, but Finance Director,
with family and friends and her legacy of education and improving the lives of others will Northern Palm Beach
are having a great start to carry on in our community. I am grateful for the kindness and County Improvement
2020! Please find below a support she showed to me over the last several years. District
few Town updates. Strategic Planning The bald eagle
Fertilizer Reduction The Town Council will be holding strategic planning has been the national
Update meetings in January. I encourage you to contact me with your emblem of the United
As I mentioned last positive and negative thoughts and comments on what the States since 1782 and
month, the council discussed my proposed resolution Council should be working on in the upcoming year. I always a spiritual symbol for
concerning reducing glyphosate and overall herbicide use on appreciate all of your comments and ideas as we go through native people for far
Town properties and right of ways. I am pleased to update this process. longer than that. These
you that my colleagues unanimously agreed with my proposal As always please contact me with any comments or regal birds aren’t really
and the resolution was passed in late November. This is a questions at ilank@jupiter.fl.us and follow me on Facebook bald, but their white-feathered heads gleam in contrast
positive step for human and animal health, water quality, and at www.facebook.com/Councilorkaufer or on Twitter @ to their chocolate-brown body and wings. Look for them
our environment. Councilorkaufer. soaring in solitude, chasing other birds for their food, or
even nesting in our area.
The bald eagle
is a conservation
success story.
Today, Florida has
one of the densest
concentrations
of nesting bald
eagles in the
lower 48 states.
While no longer
2020 SPRING TRAINING listed under the
U.S. Endangered
Species Act Bald eagle nest in Abacoa preserve
or the Florida – 2011
Endangered and
Threatened Species rules, bald eagles remain protected
by both the state eagle rule and federal law. Once
endangered by hunting and pesticides, bald eagles have
flourished under protection.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) documented four nests in northern
Palm Beach County in 2017 and a little over 30 nests
in all of Palm Beach County. (Source: FWC Bald
Eagle Nest Locator) One of the nests is located in a
preserve area within Abacoa. It was documented by
our staff biologist and in use up until a few years ago.
It is amazing to see one of these large nests up close.
Nests can range from about 4 feet in diameter and 3 feet
deep to over 9 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep. Eagles
have strong nest site fidelity, meaning they return to
the same nest and nesting territory each year. If they
successfully produce young at a nest, they are likely to
return to that nest year after year. A pair might choose to
build a new nest in a different area if their previous nest
was unproductive (failed to fledge eaglets) or otherwise
proved unsuitable. The FWC has not updated their map
since 2017 when the eagles were no longer listed as
endangered, so there could be newer nests within our
area that have not yet been documented.
Bald eagles are found in areas with large water bodies
due to their diet of fish and their hunting techniques.
According to the Cornell Lab, rather than do their
own fishing, bald eagles often go after other creatures’
catches. A bald eagle will harass a hunting osprey until
the smaller raptor drops its prey in midair, where the
eagle swoops it up. A bald eagle may even snatch a fish
directly out of an osprey’s talons. Fishing mammals
(even people sometimes) can also lose prey to bald eagle
piracy. Due to this nature, Benjamin Franklin was not
in favor of the bald eagle as our national emblem. In
1784, Franklin disparaged the national bird’s thieving
tendencies and its vulnerability to harassment by small
birds. “For my own part,” he wrote, “I wish the bald
eagle had not been chosen the representative of our
country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not
get his living honestly … besides he is a rank coward:
The little king bird not bigger than a sparrow attacks him
boldly and drives him out of the district.” If Franklin had
his way, the wild turkey would have been our national
emblem instead. He believed that the turkey was a true
native bird with lots of courage who would not hesitate
to attack if provoked. He never publicly suggested the
turkey as our national emblem, but wrote about the
choice of the bald eagle in a private letter. The story
however, makes for a good conversation starter.
NPDES tip: Planting a rain garden with native plants
somewhere around your home helps lock rainwater in
the ground, reducing the flow of pollutants and poisons
rOROGERDEANCHEVROLETSTADIUM.COM into the drains. Using organic fertilizers and pesticides
in your garden further protects and brings health to your
yard and all the species living there.