
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 2, 1994                   TAG: 9407040117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MEDFORD, ORE.                                 LENGTH: Short

DDT STILL A DARK CLOUD OVER PEREGRINE FALCONS

More than 20 years after DDT was banned in the United States and the peregrine falcon was put on the endangered species list, the deadly pesticide still is causing problems for the bird.

DDT, ingested by the falcons through the birds they prey on, has long been blamed for eggs with shells so thin they often crack before they can hatch.

The effects of DDT on wildlife have been dissipating as the chemical gets buried in the sediment of rivers and bays, said D. Michael Fry, a research physiologist at the University of California at Davis. But storms and dredging stir it up from time to time. And the pesticide still is used in Central America and other parts of the world, where it contaminates migratory birds. In warm weather, it becomes volatile and is carried up into the atmosphere, falling around the world in rain.

Patricia Zenone, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in Reno, Nev., is analyzing a proposal to upgrade peregrines in the West from endangered to threatened species. After the 1992 breeding season, Western states counted 591 breeding pairs, compared with estimates of fewer than 50 in 1973.

Still, peregrines in southwestern Oregon, the California coast near Big Sur and western Texas have problems. Jeep Pagel, a U.S. Forest Service biologist who keeps watch over 37 nests in Oregon and Northern California, counted an average of one chick per nest. That's better than the 0.7 in recent years but still below the 1.5 needed to maintain a stable population.

``A toxicologist told me, `Don't touch the eggs. They're loaded with organochlorine contaminants,''' Pagel said.

by CNB