all right everybody. Well my name is Nicola salad. I'm the director of the Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts and my good friend and colleague alchemy is going to introduce Chuck Davis. I just want to say welcome, Chuck. It's a pleasure to be with you. There's so many colleagues, ministry departments, I see Fabien Sonterra, many of us who have such a high affection and respect for your work, it's a special pleasure to have you with us. I also want to say welcome, Paul, credit director of the Modern Language Association is here to give a lecture tomorrow on the Delta innovation hub. This is the second day of the University of Georgia's first ever humanities Festival. It's not often in 250 years, because you get to do something first. And usually, if you do something bad, on this occasion is something wonderful. We had an excellent opening party class, even if you looked at the Wilson Center's website with two L's, you'll see a really rich program of events. You can also tell from my accent that I'm not from orienteer. And tomorrow is the glorious day of St. Patrick. So I wanted to wish you all well, tomorrow evening, and have your shots, there's an evening of free and excellent Irish music. The last thing that I should say to being an Irish man in America is that I couldn't do it without trying to celebrate something. And you do have the wonderful opportunity outside of buying Jacks you bought from UGA bookstore. And Jack will also be happy to sign it for you. So please do take that opportunity. But I want to thank Alfie for all the partnership over the years, there was a surface great friends of the College of Environmental Design. We love the work that all of you students who sign up for students who grading I believe in how to report on this event. I'm hoping for a good story. And thank you all for being here. It's always a pleasure to see you. we so much appreciate and respect your support throughout the year. Thank you for turning up from 1984 to 2023.
And, as Nicolas said, my name is Alfie Vick. I'm the director of the UGA environmental ethics certificate program. And that program got started here in 1983. And it was Eugene Odom and other colleagues here at UGA that that got this certificate program started trying to find the way to pair the humanities and the sciences together to address pressing environmental challenges. And the certificate program is still going strong 40 years later. One of the things that we do annually starting in 2006 is partner with the Wilson Center to host the Odom environmental ethics lecture, which you're here for the 2023 installation of that it is always co hosted by the environmental ethics certificate program and the Wilson Center. And we're enjoying the CO hosting of the college environment and design which is the building that you're in right now as well. So it's my honor to introduce our speaker Jack Davis. He's the Rothman family chair in the humanities at University of Florida. He specializes in environmental history and sustainability studies, and is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the Gulf the making of an American See, he's won a number of awards for his writing, including the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Phillips Fellowship Award. His book race against time, culture and separation and Natchez since 1930, was the winner of the Charles S. Sidner prize for the best book in southern history. And in Everglades Providence Marjory Stoneman Douglas in the American environmental century, received a gold medal from the Florida books award, his latest book, The Bald Eagle symbol and species in American history. The bald eagle and the improbable journey of Americans bird I guess is the title of the book was named in New York Times, book review Editor's Choice and one of the five best nonfiction books of 2022 by the LA Times, as well as Amazon Best Book of 2022 and an apple Best Book of 2022. So that's what we're looking forward to hearing about today is the content of that newest book, and please help me in welcoming Jack Davis.
Thank you, Alfie. And I want to Thank Nicklaus and the Wilson Center for inviting me to come speak here at the University of Georgia. Go Gators. You guys had a good season, I have to say I was I was pumping my fist for you until the very end. But the it's and thank all of you for coming out this afternoon. It's a beautiful day and I don't know if if I would be here to listen to him so I appreciate you taking the time to come I'd like to start my my talk by reading a three minute excerpt from the book to give you a sense of the the writing in the book, I write my books for a larger audience than an academic audience a popular audience because I think it's important for historians if possible to get their work out there in the public and just those of us who work in the humanities I think that we need to have a greater presence out there and and if we do maybe won't we won't be condemned so frequently by politicians who are looking for a punching bag and so because we really do have a lot to contribute those of us who work in academia and so there's no sense in us keeping it within the you know, that ivory towers if you will. So this is from an excerpt from the same mix you're gonna wrap so this my latest book, as Alfie said the bald eagle the the improbable journey of America's bird
I have a mark here somewhere. Here we go. aloft in the eerie Safe at Home where two young bald eagles five or more pounds each physically the size of a rugby ball, they were nearly ready to experience the brilliance of flight. Their eyes were dark their feathers to the spiky ones on their heads drew back as if a stiff wind were perpetually blowing in their faces. Their legs, feet and beaks were leather color, their talons black and long. They were alone together in the nest and save that five to six weeks. Eagle IDs are typically left unattended while their parents are all fishing or hunting, giving the young room to rump and exercise. By then they are too big to be preyed upon by an owl or hawk and they have their talents for on each foot. Eight lethal pirate hooks. Eagles growing into juveniles are to be avoided, not accosted yet there are always violations of what's expected, such as when an odd, unfamiliar creature, no feathers no fur, no scales, appeared at the edge of the two eagle and security. The figure rose slowly and deliberately beside the nests not unlike a cautious prairie dog peeping out of its burrow. Except this strange creature show no fear. It's intense blue eyes fixed on the young birds. They backed away to the far side of the nest, beaks open narrower tongues protruding hissing, the smaller the to balance clumsily at the edge. The odd figure about to become an unquestionable threat, stretch forward and reach for the teetering England it jumped. The falling youth instinctively opened its wings and slack on the air glided safely into a clump of Saw Palmetto. The blue eyes then turn on the other Eaglin reached out again. The ego sense the grip around one of its wings and fighting back drew blood but could not free itself. It felt something around one of its deep, small and metallic clamping but not restraining the intruder let go and the frightened bird scrambled back and away, watching as the blue eyes dropped back down below the nest. On the ground. The intruder crashed through stiff green fronds of solid pedimentos where the second Eaglin was hiding. Even if it had eluded its antagonists, the young bird could starve or succumb to other dangers. Since parents sometimes leaves stranded eclipse on the ground. The most immediate danger pushed closer to the ground and bird panting fronds open and sunlight fell as in sunlight and the blue eyes fell on Eaglin is scrambled off flapping its wings using them as weapons. The pursuer persisted, the bird was seized its wings and legs arrested. As with a sibling, something metallic went around one of its feet. But this eagle it was not set free. A soft cover fell over its head and spiky feathers and all went dark. For a long period of Eagle it was in a blinded free floating space, talked about it times, swing and others. Finally light appeared as the cover was lifted off the eagle It was back in the nest. It's dark eyes found a sibling in a clambered over and away from the intruder. Watching the strange the strange being slipped down and out of sight. Although the two eagles would not see the blue eyes, again, every new brood in the same nest, south of Sarasota, Florida would have a similar brief, but terrifying encounter with the same visitor. So I'm not going to tell you who the blue eyes belong to. Not just yet. I'll tell you a little bit later, the so but what I do want to tell you is why I wrote this book, a couple of reasons. One reason is that as an environmental writer, and environmental writers tend to focus on the doom and the gloom, and I wanted to write a book that would be an alternative alternative to that and actually offer readers something positive and uplifting. Maybe a little hope for the future. And the bald eagles story with America has plenty of grim and tragic moments in it. But it's it but there's also reduction in success. And it is indeed the bald eagles story is a great American conservation success story. You know, 10 which is another reason why I wrote the book because 1015 years ago. First of all, how many of you have seen a bald eagle in the wild? Oh, quite a few. But 1015 years ago, it was uncommon to see bald eagles into wild 20 years ago forget about it. I grew up on Tampa Bay in the 1970s and spent a lot of time on the water fishing. And I never saw a bald eagle. And you know they are fishing Raptors like Osprey. And so they live near the water. And but I never saw a bald and never saw an Osprey for that matter. The The bay was on the verge of ecological death. And but today you see lots of bald eagles throughout Florida and around Tampa Bay as well. And of course in since we are seeing this bird more often today than we once did say 1015 years ago, I thought readers would like to know a little bit about this bird both the species and its relationship its historical relationship with with it with the American people. Now quite a few of you said you have seen a balding all the while. Let me show you this. And I don't want to say how many of you seen a bald eagle do this?
It's pretty beautiful. And just notice that the Gators that this was I was it was a place to write about 10 minutes from my house in Gainesville. Anybody been a paint sprayer from a web page period? So a few of you. Yeah. And so I was going out there a few years ago in March with a graduate student who was in journalism who was studying photography, and he cut his teeth on actually filming skateboarders. And he developed just a ideal skill for capturing birds and flight. He's now as a matter of fact out in Arizona, working with a group that is monitoring bald eagles nest out there. And so, as I said, I thought that readers might like to know a little bit more about this bird that they're seeing these days. Bald eagles share the United States with only or North America with only one other Eagle species. That's the Golden Eagle. There's some 60 Eagle species that live around the world but only to live in North America to bald and and the gold and the bald eagle was a little bit larger than the Golden Eagle. It's the female is about 20% larger than the male, which is not unusual for raptor species. And a Raptor is of course a bird that haunts its food and has this hook beat that allows a bird to rip apart its prey. to eat or to feed. Its Young, an Osprey is is a raptor. And a fishing Raptor. Like like like the bald eagle. And this bird down on the left is a juvenile. It's probably about a year old. They don't get their white heads and tail feathers white tail feathers until they reach maturity around four or five years of age breeding age. And initially, their their beaks and their talents are this darker color like like the one here and those those would turn yellow when they reached or often a little bit before maturity. Their their talents and their beaks would turn well turn yellow. But the the young are large when they they leave the nest, and they're often mistaken historically they've been mistaken for other birds. Audubon. Actually John James Audubon, who hated the bald eagle by the way, with a passion and Autobahn mistook a immature, bald eagle for a separate ego species and thought he found a new one, which he named the bird of Washington. And, but as it turns out, any celebrated he includes it in the Birds of America, his big, his big album and his illustrated album of Birds of America, and in celebrated this bird and in his ornithological biography that accompanied the album, and all along he's, he didn't realize he was celebrating the various species that he hated so much. The Bald Eagle and so they, they, as I said, they're fishing rappers Golden Eagles will generally do not eat fish, the birds and eight lane animals the bald eagle will eat birds and land animals but also fish, their preferred food of choice. They typically build their nests within a few 100 yards of water, so they can have easy access to the fish. And they also build the largest NASA birds in North America. One nest I write about in the book was 35 years old. When the tree that was its host tree finally collapse. And the nest was eight plus feet across and 12 feet deep and weighed two times. The bald Bald Eagles will like other like many other raptors each year that will add on to the NASDAQ constant renovators. And so the nest grows in size over over the years. Their meaning how many Has anybody ever seen mating ritual of bald eagles? It's really spectacular. Well women writes about, wrote a poem about their mating ritual titled The dominance of the Eagles. And what they do when a couple are interested in each other. They engage in these fantastic aerial acrobatics. They will do you know, somersaults in the air, they'll they'll die, they'll they'll send up high, and they'll stall and they come back down. And eventually they'll lock talons. And they will they will somersault together and then they will in a freefall. And just before they hit the ground or the water, they let go they release in fly back up. And on occasion, they are a little bit late in their release and they end up splashing or or hitting the ground. Not always, but they don't always die when they hit the ground. And that and that's rare. And so it's if you ever have an opportunity to see that you you're you're you will see us but I've never seen it. And every once awhile I come across somebody in the audience who's who's, who's seen that. Native peoples have a relationship with bald eagles that goes back 1000s of For years, and for, for many Native groups, bald eagles are a spirit borough bird. They are messengers between the people and ancestors in the higher spirit. They're also very important in their their rituals and religious ceremonies. And in terms of in terms of their feathers and their their body parts and native groups for typically have a designated who, for whom the bald eagle is a part of their their rituals typically have a designated Eagle catcher or Hunter. And that individual has to go through numerous rituals, elaborate ritual before going out and taking a bird out in the wild. And, and they they they've taken bald eagles out of wild for 1000s of years, but never excessively and never pushing them to the brink of extinction. Sadly, Americans have twice in their history, their short history of the bald eagle, just a few 100 years have pushed the bald eagle to the brink of extinction. And most recently in the 20 century in which your we'll talk about a little bit later with the T. And now, now Americans have their own mythology around the bald eagle. How many of you guys are familiar with the Ben Franklin story? What's the story? What can you what do you what do you know about it? You didn't like bald eagles and thought it should be a turkey. What is it? What should be? The national bird should be a turkey? Is that what the rest of you heard? Somebody shaking your head? No.
It was more just a little bit. Right to call it up American system. The churches themselves?
Oh, I haven't heard that. That's yeah. Well, so no, he never He never proposed that the bald eagle be the national bird. Assuming that the Wild Turkey should be the national bird. He did compare the quote unquote moral values of the two birds of the turkey and the bald eagle. Maintaining the turkey was a was a hardworking, honest bird. And the bald eagle was a craven thief. Because the bald eagles have a pension from stealing fish from Osprey and other eagles. As a matter of fact, Justin Bryant, the graduate student who did the film, he and I would see saw that quite often when we are out of paints very filming, filming bald eagles, we spend matter of fact, at one point we saw two bald eagles fighting over a fish in mid air. And the fish went between the two eagles five times. And you have to imagine what that fish is thinking. Come on, guys just get over when put me on my misery, please. But Franklin never proposed the wild turkey for the national bird or for the front of the Great Seal of the United States. Interestingly enough. Ben Franklin was on the first congressional committee assigned the task of designing a great seal for the United States on set. And that committee was organized on July 4 1776. It was Ben Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. And so they were given the task to come up with a great seal for the United States. And you would think what, you know, what a star cast cast. These guys are, you know, they can't fail. Well, they did fail, they failed miserably. And actually what Franklin wanted for the Great Seal, the United States will blow your mind. It did me did mine when I first learned it. And it's it's just so far afield from a wild turkey. And it sounds like a myth in itself. But it's right there in the documents when he wanted for the great zeal, the United States and I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you want to know you'll have to read the book. And so there's one myth, the Ben Franklin in the turkey for a national burden. The other myth is we don't have a national bird. Congress has designated a National mammal which is the bison and national flower which is the rose national tree which is the oak But Congress has never designated a national bird. So tomorrow knowing what goes on in Washington, Congress could appoint as national bird, the sidewalk pigeon. And I'm not so sure we should put passes for doing that. But I'm actually part of a oven initiative that's being led by the National Eagles Eagle Center lava shot Minnesota, anybody here from Minnesota by chance to get the bald eagle officially designated the national bird. The choice of the bald eagle for the Great Seal in United States came six years after Franklin and Jefferson and Adams failed in their effort to design a great seal the United States and the person who gave up it and put the balding on the Great Seal in the United States was Charles Thompson, who was secretary of the Congress at the time in Congress in those days met in Philadelphia, there were lots of bald eagles around Philadelphia. So he didn't have to go far for his inspiration, just more or less had to look out his window. And I think it was the ideal choice. First of all, the bald eagle is truly an All American. Bald eagles live in the wild nowhere, nowhere else in the world outside of North America. It also embodies the characteristics that we associate with our country. strength and courage and freedom is the bird of freedom. It also has look at this bird. It also has that perfect Don't tread on me stare so oops, I wouldn't frustrate you that Yeah. So once the bald eagle went on the Great Seal the United States in 1782 Americans fell in love with the image of the bald eagle you didn't see it on decorate and decorative arts much. Before 1782 You saw JennAir non morphological eagles on decorative arts or on business logos or on business signs. And but you didn't see the ball rarely saw the bald eagle. But after 70 and 82 you begin seeing it everywhere. Of course and government is Signia military insignia but also an organizational logos business logos. You actually eagle is the most popular sports team animal mascot in the country. You see Eagle streets everywhere you see bald eagle streets everywhere eagle and bald eagle lakes and peaks. And it's a hugely popular of course you see bald eagles on the back of motorcycle jackets. Who in here is owned by AMC Eagle by chance, you know the car, the AMC ego. I think I think somebody's just not telling us. There's a car that didn't live up to its name. And although Goodyear Eagle tires are pretty decent tires, so Americans love the image and they started putting it on everything. I mean, when the Eagle Scout, the British came up with Eric was an Eagle Scout is the wolf scout and they came up with a world Scout first. And Americans thought okay, we'll do the world scout and then they said no, we should have our own bird or our own animal. That's, you know, that's endemic to the United States or as a native of North America. So they came up with the Eagle Scout. But while they liked the image, they hated the species itself. It was regarded as a treasured predator like a wolf, a mountain lion or a bear or a coyote. And it was a predator that should be shot to protect American livestock and or backyard chickens in the early days in the early 19th century throughout 19th century. It's very common people for people to have chickens in their raised chickens in their backyard. And so the bald eagle was wrongfully accused of all sorts of crimes such as carrying away sheep, calves and pigs, all of which are too heavy for a bald eagle baldy ochre and steel chicken and they do they right here in the state of Georgia well Harris on the I'm on just about on the Alabama border and southwest. Georgia has lost 1000s of free rein went into the free range chicken business about 10 years ago, and he's lost 1000s of chickens to bald eagles. In fact before he he understandably lived on the same property since the 1860s. Will Harris's I think it is probably in his late 60s now. Never saw a bald eagle in his life and so he spent until he started raising free range chickens. And in the wintertime suddenly that word got out will Harris as free range chickens or as wills will says low hanging fruit and all these eagles started showing up in the wintertime to help themselves to his chickens, so they can steal chickens but they can't. They can't carry anything heavier than a large bald eagle with momentum behind it can perhaps sly way with five pounds. But but they were accused there were stories there were ornithologist are saying bald eagles. T Geller person who was head of National Audubon in the early 20th century, testified before Congress saying that he knew of a of an eagle that flew way with a
