Steady recovery of bald eagles is evident with breeding occurring on four of the eight California Channel Islands and over 40 resident birds. This year another milestone was reached with the first natural hatching of a second generation bald eagle chick on Santa Cruz Island.
This recovery is featured in a half-hour documentary, RETURN FLIGHT, which will have its southern California broadcast premiere on KCET on the PBS series Natural Heroes on Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 6:30 pm.
In the early 1960's, the bald eagle disappeared from the California Channel Islands due to egg collecting, hunting, and DDT contamination in the marine environment. Return Flight chronicles how a team of dedicated biologists worked tirelessly for decades to successfully restore bald eagles back to the Channel Islands.
Natural Heroes is a PBS series dedicated to broadcasting inspiring films that profile people helping our environment. Currently in its sixth season, the series is carried by more than 100 PBS stations around the United States. The documentary will also air on other PBS stations in California. Viewers should check their local listings for times.
Filmed over the span of several years, the documentary was produced by award-winning filmmaker Kevin White of Filmmakers Collaborative SF and narrated by Peter Coyote. Filmmakers Collaborative SF is a non-profit media production organization that produces films on issues of contemporary social and environmental significance.
The film was funded in large part by the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program (MSRP), a multi-agency program funded by court settlements and dedicated to restoring natural resources harmed by DDTs and PCBs released in the environment in southern California.
For more information visit:
MSRP at www.montroserestoration.noaa.gov
Filmmakers Collaborative SF at http://www.filmmakerscollaborative.org/
Natural Heroes at http://naturalheroes.org/where-to-watch/
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
