Biologists like [Peter] Nye [the endangered species unit leader with the state Department of Environmental Conservation], and those who assist him around the state, have found themselves busy in recent years because the eagle population has been increasing at a steady rate, especially in the last decade. The number of bald eagles in the state climbed from 43 breeding eagles in 2000 to 158 last year, according to the DEC's 2009 bald eagle report. The report also states that in 2000, there were 71 eagles fledged. By last year that number grew to 223.... A big reason for the increase in eagles is that in the 1970s and early '80s, New York took the lead in reintroducing bald eagles into the wild. Nye was part of a team that went to Alaska and brought back eagles that were housed, and then released, in hacking towers stragetically placed throughout the state. The first was at the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in central New York. Later, Nye traveled to other northeastern states to train biologists in reintroduction methods. Those states then followed New York and introduced eagles from other environs. "So now the population in the greater Northeast area - outside of Chesapeake Bay and Maine - is a result of all these eagles that were brought in, essentially recreating the population," Nye said. Read the entire story in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.