Poaching an eagle is nearly impossible.
I seriously doubt any government environmentalist’s word that any measurable poaching of eagles has been done.
Eagles get seriously injured when diving for a kill, as do hawks. They get their wings broken, and cannot fly. There are one winged bald eagles that have been “rescued” at numerous zoos around the country. I’ve never heard anyone at the zoo claim that the eagles were deliberately injured, its just too common to make such a claim.
>> “This DEC agent had no reason to lie to me about it.” <<
Yes he did, his job was created by asserting a problem that doesn’t exist.
Poaching eagles isn’t impossible, they don’t spent their whole life way up in the air, they have nests, and sometimes just hang out on the ground or on polls. Probably once a month on the bike trail I get within a BB-gun shot of an eagle, had one sit on a rail watching me cruise by no more than 10 feet away just a month or so ago. If I wanted to kill me an eagle I’d have done it a bunch of times already.
Eagles can be found in Iowa scavenging road kill. Also around livestock facilities where dead chickens or pigs are sometimes left exposed. That’s in addition to the expected places like river parks. Easy to pick off with a .22 or even a pistol. Even guys who kill hawks on sight seem to like seeing eagles and mostly leave them alone.
No reason for stringent restrictions on them. They’re not far away from being nuisances.
http://www.examiner.com/article/four-bald-eagles-killed-washington-state
This happened near where I live a couple of months ago...