Peregrine Restoration in the New River Gorge 2011 Season

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Restoration in West Virginia

Peregrine falcon populations, although rebounding, have still not expanded into the full range of their native haunts. Three Rivers Avian Center, the WV Department of Natural Resources, the National Park Service - New River Gorge and the Center for Conservation Biology have joined together in an ongoing effort, now in its 6th year, to reestablish peregrine falcon populations into their historic southern Appalachian range.

Working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and State Wildlife Biologists from Virginia,  New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, young peregrines are taken from dangerous nesting sites in each state and brought to the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia to be raised and released. In 2006 sixteen young peregrines took wing, in 2007 twenty four more nestling peregrine falcons were released marking the largest release of peregrine falcons from a single site in the species’ recovery history.

In 2008, Three Rivers Avian Center's Executive Director ,Wendy Perrone, was named Project Co-ordinator and an additional twenty-one young peregrines took to the Gorge skies. In 2009 we launched 17, and in 2010, it was 21  more.
The 2011 Season is ended. See the report at left

Background

Peregrine Falcons are the fastest animal on the planet, diving after prey from the sky at over 260 miles an hour. Primarily bird hunters, they have gradually been rebounding from the devastating effects of DDT, a pesticide used between 1940 - 1972. The overuse of the pesticide caused such population declines in Peregrine Falcons (among other species) that they were faced with extinction and were placed on the Endangered Species List. Now with DDT banned in the United States, the Peregrine Falcon is making a comeback, enough so that they were able to be removed from the Endangered Species List in 1999.
Annual Reports on File
The 2006 Final Report
 2007*
The 2008  Final Report The 2009 Final Report The 2010 Final Report The 2011 Final Report
* This link goes to the New River Gorge National River website page for the Peregrine Restoration Project year 2007. It contains  information concerning the satellite transmitters used to track 6 of the birds that year as well as maps illustrating those Peregrines' travels around the country. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the project report for that year is unavailable.