Students at Pacific Coast Charter School were given a lesson Tuesday in environmental conservation.

Glenn Stewart, a research associate with the Predatory Bird Research Group at UC Santa Cruz, did most of the talking, but all eyes were fixed on his assistant, Curtis.

Curtis is a 6-year-old peregrine falcon raised in captivity. Stewart and the falcon visit about 60 schools each year spreading the word about the environment and beating the odds.

“My goal is to inspire young people to find new innovations to deal with new challenges like global warming,” Stewart said. “There are solutions out there”

Stewart said Curtis and other birds of his kind are proof that humans can make a difference in the world when they tackle a problem.

In 1964, Stewart said there were no peregrine falcons east of the Mississippi River.

In the West the figures weren’t much better.

By 1970 only a pair of falcons called California home, Stewart said.

The demise of the birds, Stewart said, was blamed on the use of the pesticide DDT.

The insecticide, used to kill mosquitoes and the spread of malaria and other insect-borne human diseases, was passed through the food chain and harmed bird reproduction by thinning eggshells, Stewart said.

“It was an environmental crisis; lots of birds were disappearing,” he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT in 1972 and a year later President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act, protecting the peregrine falcon and other species threatened by extinction.

In an effort to restore the dwindling population, researchers at UC Santa Cruz in 1975 began trying to raise the falcons in captivity, Stewart said.

“People said peregrine falcons wouldn’t breed in captivity,” he said.

But since then more than 1,000 falcons have been introduced into the wild, Stewart said.

In the state there are now more than 200 of the birds, which can be seen nesting in places such as the PG&E headquarters in San Francisco and Embassy Suites in Seaside, Stewart said.

Vicki Carr, principal of Pacific Coast Charter, said she was pleased her students could learn about the falcons.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for them,” she said. “The theme is one individual can make a change”

Matthew Founds, 7, loved the sight of the rare bird as it sat still on its perch.

“I liked the feathers,” he said.

Stewart said the group plans to release three 6-week-old peregrine falcons into the wild on March 20 at Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz.