When your parents told you all about life for the first time, I am willing to bet it didn't go quite like my version. During the past few decades, pesticides have threatened much of the Earth's wildlife. A prime example of this is the bald eagle. However, through the dedicated and devoted work of both the National Wildlife Federation and volunteers, the bald eagle has begun to win what was once a losing battle.

As a result of our hard work, the bald eagle has been reclassified from "endangered" to "threatened." An endangered species requires the life of every individual to keep the species from becoming extinct. Now that bald eagles are threatened rather than endangered, we can focus on the entire population instead of each individual.

We should remember however, that it was through human intervention that the eagles were almost wiped out. I am not sure we should look for glory in the work we did, but we should look at what we did in the first place. It was through our careless use of pesticides, including DDT, that the harmony of the eagles was destroyed.

Banning DDT did give an almost immediate boost to the plummeting populations of bald eagles. However, the species is still in danger as DDT is a very persistent pesticide which will continue to affect eagle populations along the shores of the Great Lakes for years to come.

As we continue to use pesticides we must acknowledge the consequences of this use on all types of wildlife. If we are to conserve and protect our Earth's life for future generations, we must act responsibly now. We must not allow our inherited greed to take control of our actions. We must allow our natural instincts to act for us, so we all have a natural "feeling" for all life. We need to search inside ourselves until we discover it. Only then can we, as a population, truly care for and save all of the natural and living gifts sent from above. u