Bald eagle violation served 6 years later

The Florida Times-Union

July 19, 2007

Bald eagle violation served 6 years later


By DEIRDRE CONNER,
The Times-Union


ST. AUGUSTINE - Six years after a St. Johns County man was accused of chopping down a tree housing an American bald eagle nest, the U.S. Attorney's Office has charged his company with the offense.
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St. Augustine-based Thompson Bros. Realty faces one count of violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. A first offense is a misdemeanor and can carry $100,000 or more in fines.

It began when avid bird watchers in the Harbour Isle Apartment Homes kept a close eye on then-vacant land southeast of the Florida 312 bridge, where a pair of bald eagles nested in a tree, they told the Times-Union in 2001. They blamed the landowner, Pierre Thompson, for having the tree cut down in October of that year. Thompson is listed as the only officer of Thompson Bros. Realty in the annual report submitted to the Florida Department of State.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated and forwarded its findings to the U.S. Attorney's Office in late 2001.

Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said it took nearly six years to bring the charges because "we wanted to be thorough."

"It did take a number of years of very thorough work to come to the conclusion that charges were warranted," he said.

Cole wouldn't comment further on the case.

A receptionist answering the phone at Thompson-Bailey-Baker Realty said Pierre Thompson was on vacation and was unavailable. The firm's attorney, David Barksdale, declined to comment because the case is pending.

The bald eagle, the country's national symbol, has rebounded from near-extinction under strong federal protections. Last month, it was taken off the federal threatened species list. But protections for the bird remain under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

Lynda White, who is the EagleWatch coordinator for Audubon of Florida, said she had never heard of a prosecution taking so long.

"Typically this does take a while, but six years, that's a new one," she said.

Prosecutions are relatively rare, White said - perhaps less than one a year in the state - because proving violations can be difficult and painstaking.

Over the past few years, there have been three convictions, all on the southwest coast of Florida.

Last year, a Fort Myers development supervisor who ordered a bald eagle's nest torn down to make room for construction was fined $2,000 and ordered to perform community service. In 2005, Stock Development paid a $356,000 fine, in a plea agreement, for cutting down an eagle's nest on property south of Naples so it could build houses there. Also in 2005, two men were fined a total of $100,000 for cutting down an eagle's nest in Venice.

deirdre.conner@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4504


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