I was delighted to read in the USDA blog this month about “Bald Eagles Making a Comeback.”

Anne Poopatanapong, district wildlife biologist for the San Jacinto Ranger District, writes that the pair of bald eagles she has been monitoring for 13 years in California’s Lake Hemet is doing well and has been fruitful. Since 2007, she and volunteer eagle enthusiasts have observed fledgling eagles every year.

It came as no surprise to read that the U.S. Forest Service is putting efforts into protecting and restoring the bald eagle — we’ve worked with them on it ourselves. We partnered with the forest service last year to plant 88,000 trees in Superior National Forest to the benefit of bald eagles and other wildlife.

The 2011 Pagami Creek Fire was a bad blow to bald eagles and other residents of Minnesota’s Superior National Forest. It blazed through 90,000 acres, just four years after the Ham Lake Fire had burned 75,000. And while fire is a natural part of the boreal forest ecosystem of Superior, declines in the diversity of tree species had left the forest more vulnerable to the blaze and less able to recover — and left the bald eagles and osprey with fewer places to nest.

So, we teamed up with the Forest Service to plant a more diverse mix of trees, from white and black spruce to northern white cedar and white, red and Jack pines that bald eagles are particularly fond of nesting in.

So, we thank the Forest Service for keeping up the good work. From California to Minnesota, we’re rooting for bald eagles. We’ll continue doing our part to restore the forests they rely on, and you can help.