July 23, 2024 Meeting Notes

 President Nancy Madeoy opened the July meeting asking members “What’s Blooming in your garden?” The resounding answer was EVERYTHING.  Specifically, members have the following plants blooming in their gardens: gladiolas, hibiscus, daylilies, shasta daisies, coneflowers, oriental lilies, hydrangeas.

There will be a meeting for the members of the 75^th Anniversary Committee on September 9^th. Claudia will give an update at our next meeting.

 

Dues will remain at $15.  Dues will be collected at the September meeting.

 

All the officers have agreed to maintain their positions on the LAGC board for another 2 years as follows: President – Nancy Madeoy,  Vice President – Marlow Madeoy, Treasurer – Denny Brown, Recording Secretary – Colleen Fingal.

Community Service Coordinator, Lynn Betts said that additional volunteers are needed to help maintain the Chapel White Garden at Passavant Hospital.  The signup sheet was circulated.  If you would like to sign up to help then, please contact Lynn Betts.

 

LAGC would like to have a new T-shirt or button to commemorate our 75^th Anniversary.  Nancy asked for a volunteer to coordinate the purchase of the T-shirt. Helen and Rosemary offered to get information from their contacts who have recently purchased T-shirts for their group.

 

Vice President Marlow spoke about the plans for the holiday luncheon. Please mark your calendars for Saturday, November 16th for a tour of The Kerr Memorial Museum in Oakmont.  Marlow is going to research the Oakmont area to find a restaurant for our lunch.  Please contact Marlow if you have any ideas.

 

Our hostesses Rose Kiselica and Sue Brozick brought a lovely flower arrangement and delicious cookies and strawberries.  Thank you, ladies!

 

 

Program ---"The Bald Eagle:  Return from Near Extinction” presented by Chris Kubiak

 

Our speaker Chris Kubiak, Director of Education at the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania 

gave a very informative and eye-opening talk about what caused the decline of the Bald Eagle in the USA and more importantly what conservation policies and actions restored the bald eagle population from just thousands in the mid- 20^th century to its current healthy population today.

 

Chris enthusiastically began his talk by reminding us of how important the Bald Eagle is to the United States. It has a long history of being used as a symbol of strength and pride in our country and is featured on currency and bottles of alcohol. The Bald Eagle is a spiritual symbol to the American Indians. Also, the Bald Eagle is the only eagle species that is native to North America.

 

Chris spoke about the physical strength of the Bald Eagle.  It’s strong enough to crush the forearm of a human being by placing 250 pounds of pressure with its claws. Bald Eagles are at the top of the food chain. They are lazy feeders and scavengers.  They pluck fish out of shallow water and not deep-sea water. He suggested that we follow the Eagle Nest Cam’s around Western PA to get a live view of how eagles take care of their eggs and eventually their eaglets.

 

There was a steep decline in the number of Bald eagles in the 1940’s almost to the point of extinction. One reason is that many eagles were killed by hunters for sport or to collect the eagle feathers.  A second reason is due to the use of one of the first insecticides, DDT. The DDT residue washed off of farms and fields and into water ecosystems where the eagles began eating contaminated fish.  The ingested chemicals caused eagle eggshells to become so thin that the eggs didn’t produce eaglets.

 

This steep decline in the number of eagles caused the implementation of many conservation policies to try to prevent total extinction.  Chris credits Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” published in 1962 as being instrumental in saving the Bald eagle because it enlightened citizens to act.  DDT was banned and the Clean Water Act was critical in cleaning up rivers to bring back fish as food for the eagles to feed their young.

 

The Bald eagle population has continued to grow over the last 50 to 60 years due to the continuous hard work of environmentalists to improve the habit of fish and other wildlife.  In 2007, the US Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Bald Eagle from the endangered species list. Our speaker said that there is no longer a need to keep count of the number of Bald Eagles in the USA anymore because they are no longer a fear that they will be extinct.

Eagle parents are gentle & feed their chicks small pieces of fish.

Some young eagles without DDT were brought in to establish territories and next.