Opinion: Biden administration must act fast to save migratory birds (earthsky.org/glacierhub)
Posted by EarthSky Voices in Earth | Human World | January 24, 2021
On Trump’s way out of the White House, his administration demolished a law that protects migratory birds, putting over 1,000 species at risk. The Biden administration can still salvage it, but only if they act swiftly.
This opinion article is written by Kelcie Walther, an undergraduate in Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Environmental Biology and Evolutionary Biology. It’s republished with permission from GlacierHub.
On January 5, 2021, the day before the world watched in horror as the U.S. Capitol was assaulted, the Trump administration laid siege to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The revision is a major blow to conservation efforts, lifting penalties for industries that accidentally cause harm to birds protected under the act.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which was enacted in 1918, originally sought to protect migratory birds from being hunted. At the time, feathers were a major fashion commodity, and bird populations were being decimated. In addition to protecting birds from intentional slaughter, it also protected its listed species from being killed by “incidental take,” the unintentional loss of birds as a consequence of an otherwise legal activity. In the century since its inception, human activity has led to many potential hazards for birds.
For years the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has been used to hold oil and power companies accountable for such unintentional deaths. The act laid the groundwork for the $100 billion settlement that British Petroleum paid after the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, which killed an estimated one million birds. Because of this recent change, the act no longer provides a means through which to fine companies that damage bird populations.
The changes, which have been described as Trump’s “parting gift” to the oil industry, were initiated by the Trump Administration in 2017. Now they have been finalized, despite having been struck down by a federal district court in Southern New York in August 2020.
Audubon Society’s policy manager, Erik Schneider, told GlacierHub:
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