Royal Oak Tribune

Ex-wildlife chief: Trump rule could kill billions of birds

- By Amy Beth Hanson and Matthew Brown

BUTTE, MONT. » At a former open pit copper mine filled with billions of gallons of toxic water, sirens and loud pops from propane cannons echo off the granite walls to scare away birds so they don’t land.

After several thousand migrating snow geese perished in the Berkeley Pit’s acidic, metal-laden waters in 2016, its owners deployed a sophistica­ted arsenal to frighten away flocks, including lasers, drones, fireworks and remote-controlled boats.

Montana Resources already had been hazing incoming birds with spotlights and rifle shots into the water — and a spokesman says those existing deterrents likely helped the company avoid a penalty or prosecutio­n under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

But the Trump administra­tion wants to end the 50year practice of using the criminal penalties under the migratory bird law to pressure companies into taking measures like these to prevent unintentio­nal bird deaths.

Critics— including top Interior Department officials from Republican and Democratic administra­tions — say the proposed change could devastate threatened and endangered species and accelerate a bird population decline across North America since the 1970s.

Former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe told The Associated Press the law’s threat of prosecutio­n served as “a brake on industry” that had saved probably billions of birds.

“Removing that obligation, if it stands, over the next several decades will result in billions of birds being casualties,” said Ashe, who served in the Obama administra­tion. “It will be catastroph­ic.”

Industry sources kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of an overall 7.2 billion birds in North America, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recent studies.

The Trump administra­tion dismissed Ashe’s dire prediction, contending companies will continue to avoid bird deaths voluntaril­y.

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