Known for hits such as 9 to 5 and Jolene, Dolly Parton was one of the most influential singer-songwriters of her generation.
But the Queen of Country, whose death aged 80 was announced on 25 August 2026, was also a philanthropist, donating money to a wide range of scientific causes. One of these causes was the plight to save the USA’s national animal.
Saving the bald eagle
In 1991, Parton’s Dollywood theme park began its collaboration with the American Eagle Foundation, opening the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary at the park. At the time, the bald eagle was classified as Endangered by the IUCN, due to threats including hunting and the use of chemicals such as DDT (which thinned the eagles’ eggshells). By 1963, the population had plummeted, with only 417 pairs of eagles left.
James Rodgers, who worked as an entertainer at Dollywood, first brought the eagles’ plight to the attention of Parton – but he didn’t expect the resulting sanctuary to be so large. The same year the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary opened, Parton released the song Eagle When She Flies.
The sanctuary supported eagles unable to return to the wild, such as those with injuries, with lifelong care. It also helped to rehabilitate raptors, release rehabilitated birds and educate people about the bald eagle. It was the largest sanctuary for non-releasable bald eagles in the world.
A breeding, hatching and release programme was also set up at the sanctuary, with the BBC stating that around 185 bald eagles were released into the wild since it opened.
Parton’s efforts to help conserve the bald eagle earned her a Partnership Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2003. And in 2007, the IUCN removed the bald eagle from the endangered species list thanks to conservation efforts and the banning of bounty hunting, as well as the pesticides DDT and PCBs.
The Eagle Mountain Sanctuary was damaged in storms in August 2026 and was moved to the American Eagle Foundation’s campus in Kodak, Tennessee.
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Top image: Dolly Parton stands next to a bald eagle being held by Al Cecere (the founder and former president of the American Eagle Foundation) during an event at the Smithsonian National Zoo on 2nd July 2003 in Washington, DC. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
