Preston Cook
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
Well, I'm soaring with the eagles. I'm absolutely excited. I'm ecstatic that finally, after 248 some odd years, that the bald eagle is now our national bird.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
This started about 15 years ago when I was preparing a chronology for a book on the American eagle that I was writing. And I was looking for an entry that would designate the bald eagle as our national bird, and I couldn't find it.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
So I went back to the minutes of the meeting on June 20th, 1782, and that was the date when America decided the bald eagle should be our national symbol on the Great Seal. And there was no mention whatsoever about it becoming a national bird. Of course, at that time, we had other things on our mind. They had a revolution to fight.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
So it was something that just they did not think about and they did not act on it.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
Well, you and 100% of other Americans, everybody is startled by this, that we'd never had a national bird and the bald eagle has never officially been designated either legislatively or by a proclamation of the president. You know, we do have a national mammal and that's the bison and we have a national tree, which is the oak. And we have a national flower, which is the rose.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
I'm soaring with the eagles. I'm absolutely excited. I'm ecstatic that finally, after 248 some odd years, that the bald eagle is now our national bird.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
So now it's time for, and we do now have, the bald eagle as our national bird. And that's after 248 years and 118 congresses that no one ever took action on until now. How prevalent is...
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
We love the symbolism of the bird, as we have for 248 years, but it was not liked as a bird. They thought it was taking babies, and they thought it was taking fish, and they thought it was taking young animals. So they didn't like it, and they shot it. They shot over 100,000 bald eagles up in Alaska from 1917 to 1953. And then DDT came along in the late 1940s, the chemical DDT.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
So in the 40s, we went from some 500,000 birds down to 412 birds nesting pair in the lower 48 states. And then when DDD was banned, the population came back and now it's a healthy 300,000 or so. And now they're off the endangered species list and doing very well with some exceptions. You know, now we have loss of land for the eagle. So that's an issue.
Global News Podcast
Israeli airstrikes have hit several targets inside Yemen
And we have lead poisoning, which is an issue. And now we have avian flu, which is an issue. So what this bill does, I think it raises the height of the bird and it raises the awareness of the bird. And we're realizing that if the bird is healthy, then humans are healthy. But if the bird is not healthy, then we are not healthy.