Western Outdoor Times - Times Spent Outdoors: Priceless!

The Arizona Game and Fish Department and its partners are lifting some of the closures at lakes and rivers statewide that are put into place annually to help bald eagles during the breeding season.

The closures at the following four sites have been removed, effective immediately, because the bald eagles in these areas failed to produce young and will not breed this late in the spring: Lake Pleasant, Verde River near Chasm Creek, Tonto Creek inlet to Roosevelt Lake, Tonto Creek from Gisela to 76 Ranch

All other previously announced closures remain in effect because bald eagle breeding activities are still continuing in those areas. The public should contact the local land management agency to ensure the area they are visiting is open for recreational use.

Each year, land and wildlife management agencies close bald eagle breeding areas for part of the year, beginning in December, to protect the state’s bald eagles. Outdoor recreationists are asked to help protect these important breeding areas by honoring the closures.

Bald eagles are particularly sensitive to human disturbance during the breeding season and public cooperation with the closures is an important part of helping to conserve the species. Human activity near active bald eagle nests can cause a breeding pair to leave its eggs uncovered, leading to a failed breeding attempt. Human presence can also cause a young bird to prematurely leave the nest.

For more information on Arizona’s bald eagles, visit http://www.azgfd.gov/baldeagle or http://www.swbemc.org .