A national symbol since 1782, and recently designated as our national bird, the bald eagle was on the verge of dying out in the mid-1900s. Ornithologist and author Tina Morris shares the remarkable story of her efforts in the 1970s as one of the first women to engage in a raptor reintroduction program in the hopes that eagles could repopulate eastern North America. Hear about the challenges she faced as a young woman researcher in a male-dominated field, with little direction and no experience, working to save this iconic bird from extinction. Raising seven eaglets forced her to transcend the isolation of field research to rescue an endangered species — while in turn rescuing herself.

A book signing of Morris’ memoir Return to the Sky: The Surprising Story of How One Woman and Seven Eaglets Helped Restore the Bald Eagle will follow the program.

About the Collaborator

Tina Morris earned her undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and completed her graduate work in ornithology and wildlife biology at Cornell University 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 nonfiction with a science or nature focus. Her short stories and nonfiction essays have appeared in Cognoscenti, LitBreak, Kestrel and North by Northeast. Her critically acclaimed memoir Return to the Sky: The Surprising Story of How One Woman and Seven Eaglets Helped Restore the Bald Eagle was published in October, 2024. 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.