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Image: USFWS Mountain-Prairie via Wikimedia Commons
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer
The Biden Administration announced that it would restore protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, enforcing rules that hold companies accountable for killing wild birds. The Trump Administration dramatically scaled back these rules, folding to the demands of oil companies, utilities, and other industries. Under these new rules, companies will be prosecuted if they anticipated bird deaths but made no attempt to avoid them.
Why this Matters: America’s birds are in trouble — two-thirds of all North American bird species are now at risk of extinction. On Wednesday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared 22 species extinct, including the iconic ivory-billed woodpecker.
The petroleum industry is particularly dangerous to birds, and, under the restored Migratory Bird Treaty Act, oil companies would once again be prosecuted for damage to avian populations. In 2010, BP settled for $100 million after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused the death of 100,000 birds.
Free as a Bird?
Bird conservation agencies hope a permit program — that had been drafted during the Obama Administration but never implemented — would be brought back. Permits would require companies to take preventative measures to ensure birds’ safety, “such as installing screens to keep birds out of oil pits and turning off or altering telecommunication tower lights to reduce collisions,” according to NPR.
The new rules would also take stock of many threats to birds, like glass buildings, power lines, and chemical poisoning, which kills hundreds of thousands of birds.
“We’ve lost almost 3 billion birds in the last 50 years,” Jerome Ford, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assistant director for migratory birds, told NPR. “We want to create a common-sense approach that works to both conserve birds and provide regulatory certainty to industry.”
By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Almost 1,000 of Florida’s manatees have died as of Oct.1 this year, setting a tragic record for the most deaths in a year, with two months left to go. Deaths were largely caused by starvation — the predator-less sea cows typically spend hours a day eating seagrass, but declining […]
Do you have a good eye? Are you surprisingly good at Where’s Waldo and like Walruses? If so, we have great opportunity for you! The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is seeking volunteers to help count Atlantic walruses…from space. Sea ice is retreating fast as global temperatures rise, forcing walruses to crowd on smaller floes […]
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer At a UN conference in Kunming, China, President Xi Jinping set aside $230 million to form a fund that preserves biodiversity in developing countries. This announcement was made at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity talks (COP15) which are dedicated to preserving delicate ecosystems and preventing plants and animals […]
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