The Trump administration on Friday advanced its plans to cut federal regulation protections for birds despite criticisms from scientists and former federal officials that the move will likely be severely detrimental to the U.S. bird population.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday released its Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed change to the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) that would greatly limit federal authority to prosecute industries for practices that kill migratory birds.
The act was first passed “to stop the unregulated killing of migratory birds,” according to Friday’s report. Under the legislation, the Fish and Wildlife Service regulates the “taking” of migratory birds, which includes “to pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, collect, or attempt to hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect.”
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The proposed change seeks to clarify the scope of the definition, although many have pointed out that the change will scale back federal prosecution authority for the threats birds face from industry, including electrocution on power lines, wind turbines that knock them from the air and oil field waste pits where landing birds can die in toxic water.
While the Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged in its report that the regulatory change will have “negative” impacts on migratory birds, as well as “other biological resources,” “cultural resources” and “ecosystem services,” the report states that the proposed change “is necessary to improve consistency and efficiency in enforcement of the MBTA’s prohibitions across the country and inform the public, businesses, government agencies, and other entities what is and is not prohibited under the MBTA.”
According to the Fish and Wildlife Service and recent studies, industry operations kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of approximately 7 billion birds in North America.
A federal judge in New York in August rejected the Trump administration’s push for the regulation change, although the agency has pushed forward with the change, regardless.
According to The Associated Press, federal officials advanced the bird treaty changes to the White House, one of the final steps before adoption, just two days after President-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenPennsylvania Supreme Court strikes down GOP bid to stop election certification Biden looks to career officials to restore trust, morale in government agencies Biden transition adds new members to coronavirus task force MORE was projected the winner of the 2020 election.
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David Yarnold, president of the National Audubon Society, said in a statement Friday that Trump was “in a frenzy to finalize his bird-killer policy.”
Yarnold added that “reinstating this 100-year-old bedrock law must be a top conservation priority for the Biden-Harris Administration” and Congress.
The proposed change is the latest in a series of acts by the Trump administration to pass pro-industry legislation before Biden takes office in January, including the expansion of Arctic drilling and legislation that favors industrial development over protections for endangered species.
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