THANKS TO GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE, EAGLES SOAR AGAIN: FROM `ENDANGERED' TO `THREATENED'

Bald eagles, which numbered only about 800 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states 20 years ago, have staged such a comeback nationwide that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will move the national bird from the endangered to less-serious "threatened" status.

This is good news that indicates the Endangered Species Act, which has been under increasing attack in Congress and elsewhere, helped a stately bird once near extinction rebound and increase its numbers 10-fold.

Probably more important than any law for the bald eagle's recovery, though, is the grassroots love Americans have for their national bird. When eagles found their way to Cape Rock this spring, just in front of Mississippi River ice, traffic lined up bumper to bumper to get a glimpse of the majestic birds of prey. Few people today can imagine killing an eagle for sport.

Also important to the bald eagles' recovery has been the banning of some of the pesticides that made their way into rivers and lakes, contaminating fish, the primary food for eagles.

We hope the bald eagles' recovery doesn't give Fish and Wildlife officials justification to recklessly ban any species simply because it could face far-off threats. As the spotted owl fiasco in the northwest makes painfully clear, overzealous animal lovers -- particularly with the federal government on their side -- can cripple industry and ruin the lives of those families that rely on industry. Careful, responsible use of endangered species designation must be the rule.

Now is the time to cheer the beloved bald eagle for its remarkable comeback. But it is no time to use that comeback as a pretext to wield power over the lives of humans on behalf of species claimed frivolously to be much too fragile to coexist with mankind.