2026 Biodiversity in the Connecticut River Watershed Lecture Series: Return to the Sky: The Reintroduction of the Bald Eagle, by Dr. Tina Morris

As the bald eagle, our national symbol, was facing extinction in the continental U.S. in 1976, Tina Morris was beginning her graduate work at Cornell University. By luck and circumstance, she was selected to reintroduce the species into New York State in the hope that eagles could repopulate eastern North America. Young, female, with no experience, she faced the challenges of saving this iconic bird while striving for acceptance in the unfamiliar male-dominated world of raptor biology. Playing mother to seven eagles forced her to transcend the isolation and tedium of field research to rescue an endangered species while in turn rescuing herself

Tina Morris completed her graduate work in ornithology and wildlife biology at Cornell in 1978, writing her thesis on the adaptations of hacking techniques to reintroduce bald eagles. Following her studies at Cornell, she worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nature Conservancy for several years, focusing on endangered species and critical habitat conservation, before embarking on a 23-year career teaching English and biology. Since her retirement in 2020, she has devoted her time to her own writing, especially creative non-fiction with a science or nature focus. Thirty years ago, with four children in tow, Tina and her husband bought a farm in northern Massachusetts, which they manage as a wildlife sanctuary, promoting biodiversity and habitat protection for species in decline.