Are there any plans to develop the eagle nest site?

[Ken Schneider]

This morning I received a telephone reply to my query, from Joe McLaughlin, Director of Environmental Services of the City of Pembroke Pines.

The Pembroke Pines nest is on City-owned land. According to Mr. McLaughlin, there are no plans for selling, transferring or developing this land for the next two years. Of course, plans can change at any time. Joe pointed out that an environmental/ecological survey would have to be completed before the land can be developed.

I asked him about whether it might be possible to have signs posted around the "Eagle Forest," to inform the public and discourage people from approaching the nest. He said any such request should be referred to the City Manager, Charles F. Dodge.

[NewMexiKen]

Kelly Smith, 7th Grade Science teacher at Silver Trail Middle School, followed up with this e-mail to me, with an interesting suggestion:

Great!  It seems like progress is being made.  At least we have someone with the city who is aware of the nest.

I was wondering what Brian's [referring to Brian Mealey, the eagle researcher] impressions of the nest were?  Did he think he'd be able to put a radio on this pair's offspring?  I looked at his website today < http://www.instwildlifesciences.org/ >and it seemed that the eaglet NBC6 may be out of the picture - no transmisisons for some time.  Maybe NBC6, the news station, would be interested in sponsoring this nest, especially since it is located so close to their offices in Miramar.

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Hi, Kelly--

Brian thought it would be possible to put a transmitter on an eaglet in the PP nest. He said they would need to use climbing gear, and that it was quite high up. He was looking for a major branch that was higher than the nest. He said one was there.  They shoot a small line up and then pull up a rope. They would not have to bring in a cherry picker that  would need a road right up to the nest, but the nest is too high for one, anyway.

Good point about NBC6. I just e-mailed them for their information (marketing dept as well as  community news and Web services), with a link to the eagle web page.

Ken