Conservation Note for March

Conservation Committee Note for March: Save the Birds!

The current administration has presented us with another conservation crisis, this time a devastating threat to our migratory birds.  Brad Bortner is a subject matter expert on the MBTA and federal rule making, having retired as the Chief of Migratory Bird Management in December 2017 after a 33 year career as migratory bird biologist. At our request, he provides the below summary of the threat to our birds, and the action we can take.

Save our Birds!

Brad Bortner

Can you imagine hiking and not seeing or hearing your feathered friends?  On December 22, 2017, the Department of the Interior (DOI)issued a legal memorandum eliminating a 50 year old prohibition on accidentally killing birds.  Now, DOI is rushing through the rule making process to make this opinion a binding Federal regulation. You have until March 19th to express your thoughts to DOI.  

The DOI’s decision is particularly misguided considering the devastating findings of a new study published in Science, revealing that nearly 3 billion birds have disappeared from North America over the past-half century. This alarming decline is the equivalent of losing more than one in four birds in less than a single lifetime. It is now more urgent than ever that they implement policies to conserve our vanishing bird species rather than unraveling decades of progress and crippling the law that protects them.

Migratory birds have been protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act since 1918 and the proposed changes to this law would cripple conservation efforts.  Bird deaths like the Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon would no longer be illegal. Accidental poisoning with pesticides or constructing bird killing power lines or wind turbines in bird migration areas would no longer put companies at risk of fines.  Companies would have no incentive to try to avoid or minimize killing birds accidentally.

You can hear more about the proposed change at:
https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/0/e/b/0eb68963009d8c93/TOEep79BIRDS.mp3?c_id=65327711&cs_id=65327711&expiration=1582408631&hwt=48373508b6b153ae98ee7ec30f184801

What You Can Do:

You must file your comments by March 19th, 2020 through this site:

https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FWS-HQ-MB-2018-0090-0002

Please make your voice heard!!Tell the DOI you oppose eliminating the prohibition on accidentally killing birds.

Thank you!

For the love of all the birds who share this beautiful planet with us,

Your Conservation Committee