[Mnbird] Proposed Changes to Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Helping Birds jb at inet-serv.com
Sun Feb 9 13:05:43 CST 2020


Reposting from MOU:

As you have likely heard, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is 
proposing
to change the current scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act so that 
only
actions that intentionally harm birds are prohibited. What this means 
is
that actions that do not intentionally harm birds ****but do so
incidentally**** are no longer prohibited. This defines the law as
mirroring an opinion provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior 
in
late 2017.

This is very bad news for birds. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act has 
been a
cornerstone of American conservation since its inception in 1918. It
remains an integral part of conservation today as bird populations 
face
constant threats from development and habitat degradation. Under the
proposed change, an entire breeding colony of birds can legally be
destroyed because it's in the way of a tunnel expansion project, and 
no
mitigation or creation of new habitat is required. This isn't a
hypothetical situation; this actually happened in 2019 in Virginia (
https://www.whsv.com/content/news/VDOT-Bridge-project-cost-25K-birds-their-nesting-site-566818131.html?fbclid=IwAR0e50qeN3axm0h6jhtUhieshgzOCxTnGJDNaHrcSSlAwSuzYqksMGh21xU
).

The proposed rule is open for public comment until March 19. To 
express
your opinion on the change, please follow the instructions provided in 
this
link for commenting:

https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ref=u.s.-fish-and-wildlife-service-solicits-public-input-on-proposed-rule-and-&_ID=36517&fbclid=IwAR1FMEGz0Z9K9yPLluarm1G4jx2wUTU65ZKjoj_DGj1F-E1VYxLDAsyF0B0
.

In addition, please voice your concerns to both your state and local
representatives; should this proposed change be accepted, it will then 
be
up to state governments to enforce their own laws regarding incidental 
take
as the federal protections would no longer be in place.

Bob Dunlap, Immediate Past President






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