What happens when you find a dead eagle?

When T A Taro found a dead golden eagle on a ridge line above Dayton Sunday, he was in awe of the huge bird.

"I was sad to see it dead, but fascinated by it at the same time," he said. "It was marvelous even in death."

The eagle, which can have a wingspan up to 7 feet and soar as high as 15,000 feet above the Sierra, was found face down by a hiking group from the Carson City Senior Citizens Center.

Taro, a center member and employee of J K Harris & Co., leads advanced hikes every weekend for the center. The group hikes about 7 miles in winter and as many as 15 during the summer, usually looking for wildflowers, fall color or historic sites.

The eagle find was a surprise. "It's all serendipity," Taro said. "You never know what you're going to encounter out there."

Taro contacted Stanley Weimeyer, a contaminant specialist for the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the two went back out to collect the bird.

After Taro hauled the 10-pound eagle out, it was placed in a freezer at the Nevada Fish and Wildlife office in Reno, where it is now in storage.

"We're awaiting word from our law enforcement officers on what to do next," Weimeyer said. Fish and Wildlife special agents will investigate the circumstances of the bird's death. Unless it appears to have been killed by a person -- a federal crime -- it is sent to the National Eagle and Wildlife Property Repository in Commerce City, Colo.

From there, American Indians enrolled in a federally recognized tribe who have a Native American Religious Purpose permit can apply for eagle parts.

Specialist Randy Van Soelen at the repository says they get about 1,500 eagles per year and 1,700 applications.

"We go ahead and try to do a pretty fast turnaround," he said. An American Indian in New Mexico who applies for bald eagle wings could get a pair from an Anchorage, Alaska, bird, he said.

A spokesperson for the Carson City Bureau of Indian Affairs office -- which has 11 tribes under its jurisdiction -- said the office gets about 10 applications for eagle parts each year.

Fallon resident and Shoshone Monty Williams has twice received eagle feathers through the Fish and Wildlife system. Most of the eagle-feather ceremonial items he uses have been passed down from generation to generation, he says.

"I think it's fair," he says of the program. "Not just anybody in the nation can have eagle feathers, so they monitor the best they can."

He uses eagle feathers arranged like a wing in a bustle during traditional dances. Tribal women wear feathers in their hair.

It can take up to three years to get eagle feathers through the federal program, but that's OK with Williams.

"That three-year delay gives you time to think about what it means to have part of an eagle," he said.

YOU CAN HELP

If you find a dead eagle, call the Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office in Reno at 861-6326.