Dolly Parton has left behind a legacy of wildlife conservation. The singer-songwriter, who died on August 25, 2026, at 80 years old, founded the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary in her theme park, Dollywood. The Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, which was damaged by storms in August of 2026, has released more than 180 injured bald eagles back to the wild, according to reporting from the BBC.
When the sanctuary opened in 1991, the U.S.’s national animal, the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Conservationists had been working for decades to recover the species, which plummeted to only 417 breeding pairs by 1963.
In 2003, Parton received a Partnership Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for her role in protecting the species.
