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to act as a buffer. Ranking the habitats listed above according to minimum 

 viable size, bogs would come first (very small areas are preservable) , 

 followed by ponds, marshes, shallow marine communities, and forests. The 

 area of each site considered has been measured by planimeter on 7-1/2 

 minute topographic maps. Obviously the largest area possible of any 

 given habitat would allow the greatest number of options if multiple use 

 is to be considered in the management of the preserved area. 



RARE AND ENDANGERED ANIMAL SPECIES 

 One of the most important considerations in the selection of natural 

 areas is the protection that the area gives to endangered or uncommon 

 species. Topping the list is that species so important as our national 

 symbol and so increasingly rare in our daily lives, the southern bald eagle 

 ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus ) . Despite the decline of its 

 eagle population by at least 60% in the last 10 years, the Bay region is the 

 most productive area for southern bald eagles, north of Florida. Around 

 90 nests, not all active in any given year, can be found in Delaware, Maryland, 

 and Virginia. Yet in 1936 there were over 250 active nests in the same area. 

 Not only have the number of nesting eagles declined but there has been a 

 shift from the upper parts of rivers and the norhtern part of the Bay to 

 the estuarine segments of the rivers and the southern Bay. Despite 

 pesticide-induced egg shell thinning (recored for a number of birds of 

 prey as well as fish predators such as the cormorant and brown pelican) , 

 the major cause of eagle mortality continues to be shooting, pollution of 

 feeding areas, and loss of frabitat to various forms of development. The 

 prognosis is not good since the reproductive rate, 5-35%, is considerably 



