Eagles vs. Fireworks
A Fourth of July battle at Big Bear.
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Eagles vs. Fireworks
As long as the Fourth of July has been celebrated, it has been celebrated with fireworks, starting in 1777. And since 1782, the bald eagle has been part of the seal of the United States. As patriotic symbols of the United States, both fireworks and the bald eagle predate the Constitution. Unfortunately, they don’t mix well.
John Adams wrote about walking around Philadelphia the night of July 4, 1777—the first observed anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He said he “was surprised to find the whole city lighting up their candles at the windows” and he noted the joy and merriment of “the bonfires in the streets, and the fireworks played off.”
Ten years later, Adams’s 20-year-old son John Quincy Adams spoke of eagles in his Harvard commencement speech. The young Adams urged his classmates to embrace patriotism, and he spoke of America and its symbol as a protector of freedom, saying “Our eagle would soon extend the wings of protection to the wretched object of tyranny and persecution in every quarter of the globe.”
Ironically, the powerful eagle would end up needing our protection after being driven almost to extinction in the 1960s. In what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls “the most well-known conservation success stories of all time,” environmental protections and regulations saved the species, and in 2007 they were officially removed from the federal endangered list.
Bald eagles are still considered endangered on California’s list, and right now one California town is at the center of the fact that eagles do not mix with the American tradition of fireworks. Celebratory pyrotechnics are under fire this Fourth of July in the mountain community of Big Bear because they pose a real threat to the survival of some of our national birds.
Friends of Big Bear Valley, which operates a popular online camera tracking bald eagles Jackie and Shadow and their young eaglets Sunny and Gizmo, says a planned fireworks show tomorrow could be extremely dangerous for the eagles.
According to Friends of Big Bear Valley, "Sadly, Visit Big Bear and their agency and community partners are standing by their decision to blast off July 4 fireworks in Big Bear this Friday. We have tried speaking with them, all but begging, showing documented proof of Jackie and Shadow leaving the area for days, explaining how fireworks do major damage, not just to birds and wildlife, but to the lake with pollution, the ducks and their babies, the overall environment and humans breathing the air polluted by the event, as well as pets and PTSD humans.
"Shadow and Jackie leaving at this time of training and growth for Sunny and Gizmo could be especially devastating to the juveniles’ long and short-term development and chances of survival. Eagles and especially juveniles have very poor night vision and being startled into flight at night is very dangerous."
A petition called No Big Bear Lake Fireworks Show for the Safety of Sister Eaglets (Gizmo and Sunny) has garnered over 40,000 signatures, but that hasn’t deterred Visit Big Bear. The 2025 fireworks show in Big Bear will go on.
The future of fireworks shows is changing, though, with more cities moving to elaborate drone shows set to music. It might seem blasphemous to some, but I suppose there’s something poetic about our traditional gunpowder-based entertainment being replaced by battalions of the nimble harbingers of modern warfare.
Look, I get the love for firecrackers. My childhood summers were defined by them. My older brother would make the pilgrimage to Indiana where they were legal to buy trunks full of every variety known to man and every Fourth of July, he lit up the sky and blew up rows of corn stalks in the process. My cousins and I swam to the middle of our pond to get out of range of the Roman candles he’d fire at us from the end of the dock. I have no idea how we survived.
As lovely as those memories are, I see the benefits of moving away from something with so many negative consequences, especially when it comes to the backyard variety—the unpredictable amateur shows that pop up at all hours throughout the summer. I mean you’ve got human injuries, the distress to pets and people, the effect on air quality and wildlife, and—and this is a big one—the risk of wildfires. Plus, as I’ve grown older I’m souring on most things that are just too damn loud.
I’m curious to see how light shows evolve, and what progress will be made to move away from the intoxicating American tradition of excitement, mayhem, dazzle that comes with fireworks.
Sunny and Gizmo and their petition seem like an undeniably patriotic way to further that fledgling movement.
Catch up on our recent episodes where we dig deep into questions like, was Abraham Lincoln really a champion wrestler? Did William Henry Harrison really die from giving a long inaugural speech in the cold rain without a coat? And did Parson Weems really invent the story of George Washington chopping down his father’s cherry tree?
When I was young, there was a saying when something was done that turned out to be less than ideal: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Now, fireworks are an essential part of our history and there's no reason why they should be severely limited except in circumstances that clearly dictate that limitation such as in the hands of a child or taking place in a dry wooded area or an area where severe damage to wildlife or even human life might result. The problem, however, with such ordinary, intelligent restrictions is that they are never limited by ordinary intelligence. There are always the Kevins and Karens of society who try to prevent ANY POSSIBLE mishap ~ and not just with fireworks! This is the sort of thinking that leads to warning labels not to eat the can or put the baby in the plastic bag in which the item arrives & etc. In other words, we are harried and harassed by people who have the mental abilities of the average mushroom! The simple fact is this: one cannot prevent every possible accident from happening. Only death finally limits the damage one can do to oneself and/or one's fellow man and that, as another old saying used to postulate, "is no way to live!"