Good News

JUNE 14 MARKED THE 25TH anniversary of the banning of DDT. Since then, many formerly imperiled bird species nearly wiped out by the pesticide have rebounded remarkably, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. Some examples:

Bald eagles have increased tenfold, to more than 5,000 pairs in 1996 from fewer than 500 pairs in 1963.

Peregrine falcons jumped from a 1975 low of 39 breeding pairs, all of them in the West, to 993 pairs in 1996, including 153 pairs newly re-established in the Eastern states.

The osprey count is up from fewer than 8,000 breeding pairs nationwide in 1981 to 14,246 pairs in 1994.