Bill Threatens Migratory Birds

The Willamette Valley is located along the Pacific Flyway, a major west coast migration corridor that stretches from Alaska to Patagonia. Nearby National Wildlife Refuges such as the William L. Finley and Ankeny preserves are important stops for migratory waterfowl like the dusky Canada goose. In the coming weeks, the arrival of trumpeter swans and Rufous hummingbirds in the oases and beaches of Southern Oregon will signal the beginning of spring migration.

The MBTA, which includes over 1,000 species, protects most of the birds that travel along this flyway. While it is still illegal to intentionally hunt or “take” these birds without a proper permit, the proposed rollback could pose a less explicit threat. Industries that cause incidental harm through practices that result in habitat loss or exposure to other risks will be subjected to far less scrutiny from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The new rule aims to codify a legal opinion issued in 2017, which marked a dramatic swerve from how the MBTA had been administered for almost 50 years. The decision provoked a host of lawsuits from interest groups like the National Audubon Society. Oregon is among the eight states that have also pursued litigation. Others include New York, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Mexico. The imminent formalization of this mandate would make it much harder for a future administration to reverse.

The MBTA has proven to be a powerful tool for holding polluting industries accountable for their environmental effects. It was used to levy $100 million in fines against BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which caused the injury or death of up to one million birds. Under the new rule, this avenue toward prosecution would not be available since the company did not intentionally harm any birds.

The real effects of this rollback are likely to be far less visible or spectacular than the Deepwater spill. According to a 2019 New York Times report, dozens of bird-preservation projects have been jettisoned by land developers and utilities companies since the 2017 decision, which has effectively halted the investigation of incidental bird deaths by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

It seems unlikely that any shift which makes the implementation of conservationist strategies less mandatory and more voluntary will prove to be good news for migratory birds.