Environment| Environment

In order to protect the nests of golden eagles, hunters, hikers, and UTV-ers are prohibited from the area. Although this restriction is only seasonal, Babbitt Ranches, the owner of the SPEC complex, has collaborated with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to establish year-round rules for the area. The rules prohibit lead ammunition, target shooting and hunting small game animals, as well as trapping.

These restrictions will be enforced in the area by wildlife managers. Violations should be reported to AZGFD.

The SPEC complex was established 2021. It follows a long tradition of eagle conservation. Since 1962, federal protection has been given to golden eagle populations under the Eagle Act. U.S. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expanded the definition of the Eagle Act to include any action that could cause or is likely to cause injury to an Eagle, or interfere with normal breeding or feeding behavior, causing a decrease or abandonment in productivity.

Kenneth Tuk Jacobson is the AZGFD raptor programme coordinator. He says that golden eagles are a species that prefers to live in wilderness areas and don’t mind humans being around their nesting sites.

Jacobson explained that golden Eagles will abandon eggs when they feel threatened. If parent eagles leave their nest while their eaglets still are young, they will be extremely vulnerable to predators and elements like ravens that will take them up in a heartbeat.

Because they don’t reproduce very quickly, golden eagle populations can also be affected by disturbances.

A recent study by the AZGFD revealed that golden eagle couples average one nestling every two year. Recent data suggests that Arizona currently has approximately 700 breeding adult and sub-adult eagles.

Babbitt Ranches president Billy Cordasco stated that the seasonal restrictions surrounding the complex were made in response to the rising number of outdoor recreationists living in northern Arizona. They are meant to reduce golden eagle reproductive vulnerability, keep nesting areas quiet, and promote the survival rate for the young.

Cordasco hopes that these restrictions will reduce the threat to eagles as well as improve their survival rate and production rate.

The restrictions that are in place all year, especially the ban on lead ammunition and other items, are intended to promote eagles’ health.

Michael Cravens, Arizona Wildlife Federation’s hunter advocacy coordinator, stated that it is important to move hunters away from lead ammunition.

Lead ammunition can break down into small pieces upon impact. This can contaminate gut piles or game that escapes. Lead poisoning can occur if an animal’s body is ingested by an eagle, or another predator.

Cravens stated that birds of prey are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning due to their acidic digestive system.

He said that it takes only a small amount of lead to kill birds of prey.

Because golden eagles don’t scavenge as much carrion as they do fresh prey, they are less likely to ingest lead. However, the National Park Service still considers lead poisoning a serious risk factor for golden eagle population.

Babbitt Ranches’ collaboration with the AZGFD is a rare one, said Steve Cassady regional specialist for AZGFD landowner relationships and habitat enhancement program.

Although the AZGFD is often in collaboration with private landowners and other organizations, a species-oriented project like SPEC complex is a first.

Cordasco hopes the complex will be a national model in the protection and sustainable use of golden eagles. In some ways, its influence has already transcended state borders. A 2018 report by the Landsward Foundation, a stewardship non-profit in association with Babbitt Ranches, detailed the testimony of Tom Koronkiewicz, SWCA Environmental Consultants’ avian ecologist.

Koronkiewicz claims that Charlie, a female Golden Eagle, was bailed after she displayed nesting behavior at the SPEC complex site.

Koronkiewicz stated in the report that she left her nesting region and headed straight north to Yukon. It was not something that she had expected. She arrived in Yukon around April, and she left in October. The most remarkable thing about this is that she left the Yukon in October, presumably to breed next year.

According to the same report the Babbitt Ranches region is the best area for golden eagle habitat in Southwest because it has large, undeveloped areas of natural landscapes. Babbitt Ranches is a research organization that has been studying eagles for more than a ten years on its 750,000-acre range.