Hello MOU members and MOU-net subscribers, 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 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
