Working alongside wildlife biologists and veterinarians, a BARC lineworker and bucket truck help rescue an injured bald eagle in hopes of saving its life
November-December 2026
A lineworker works to reach an injured eagle at a Division of Wildlife Resources fish hatchery in Bath County. (Courtesy DWR staff)
by Jack Cooksey, Staff Writer
It’s a story that began with cooperative-assisted teamwork and a healthy dose of optimism, when biologists at the Virginia Division of Wildlife Resources needed help freeing a juvenile bald eagle trapped in a tree in Bath County, Va.
On the morning of Sept. 30, a staff member at DWR’s Coursey Springs Fish Cultural Station, a fish hatchery, was doing a walk-through status check of the facility and noticed the bird hanging upside-down in a tree. She immediately called DWR to report the situation, which was referred to Kathrine McCarty, the district biologist for Bath and surrounding counties.
Once on-site, McCarty assessed the situation. “I wasn’t sure if it was stuck in some twine or wire or something like that, but what we were able to gauge is that the bird was alive and it certainly couldn’t get itself unstuck,” she says.
McCarty says the tree was unsafe to climb, making it difficult to safely disentangle the eagle. Reaching the bird, trapped 30 feet above the ground, required a bucket truck, so she reached out to organizations with lift equipment. “We called quite a few people and either [received] no response or people were not really interested in helping because of liability issues.”
Finally, she turned to folks nearby — BARC Electric Cooperative. The co-op’s chief operating officer, Chris Botulinski, took the call and quickly contacted Jess Pritt, a linework general foreman, to gauge his availability. “Fortunately, Jess was near Hot Springs with the two-person bucket truck and was able to split away from his crew,” Botulinski says.
When Pritt arrived with the truck, he and McCarty coordinated a plan of action. “She was walking me through the steps on how to handle the bird,” Pritt says. “Then I spoke up saying I have a better plan.”
They decided he would cut the limb from the tree and slowly lower the bird to where McCarty could finally disentangle it. She saw that one of the bald eagle’s talons had wedged into a space between two branches. When it had tried to leave the perch, the bird suffered a severe leg fracture, requiring surgery, DWR said in a statement.
The next day, the juvenile eagle was taken to the Wildlife Center of Virginia, where a team of veterinarians repaired its leg.
Despite the valiant teamwork, the juvenile eagle died days later from medical complications related to its injuries, says DWR spokeswoman Shelby Crouch. “That being said,” she adds, “[it] wouldn’t have had the chance [it] did without the help from BARC and then the expert care at [the Wildlife Center of Virginia].”
Veterinarians treat an injured juvenile bald eagle at the Wildlife Center of Virginia. (Courtesy Wildlife Center of Virginia)