January 02, 2020

Trump admin made it legal for companies to kill migratory birds

topic:	Mass Extinction
located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

A new interpretation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Act by the Trump administration has effectively removed protections from countless species of birds, making it legal for companies and businesses to destroy or harm them without facing repercussions. 

A recent New York Times investigation has reviewed emails, letters, and internal documents of the Fish and Wildlife Service and revealed that the new “technical clarification” of the 1918 law removes legal liability from entities killing birds or destroying their habitats as long as the birds or their nests are not “the intended target”. 

The Migratory Bird Act was designed to protect birds from excessive hunting and poaching, and made it illegal to kill or harm birds of certain species without a permit. Alas, intense lobbying, particularly by oil industry giants, has compelled the Trump administration to all but legalise the destruction and harming of migratory birds by halting the prosecution of companies that ‘accidentally’ kill birds or harm nests in the course of their business’ work. The Trump administration declared that the new interpretation of the law will stop the “totalitarian” limitation placed on companies by the Migratory Bird Act and boost business in the country. 

And while the Fish and Wildlife Service claimed in a statement that the agency will continue to collaborate with states and businesses to ensure the safety of migratory birds, evidence compiled by The Times from across the United States suggests that the government has not only refused to hold entities harming birds accountable, but actually went out of its way to discourage states and companies from protecting birds.

In Virginia, the state intended to construct an artificial island in the Chesapeake Bay in order to compensate for the destruction of migratory birds’ nesting grounds as a result of a bridge and tunnel expansion in the area. The Trump Administration was quick to respond and clarified to the Virginia government that such measures would not be necessary under the new interpretation of the 1918 law. Shortly thereafter, Virginia decided to abandon the project.

In other cases, the Fish and Wildlife Service went so far as to tell companies and government agencies (such as the Coast Guard) to stop documenting cases of destruction and harming of birds unless there was concrete proof that the killings were intentional. 

The extinction process of birds has been underway for decades. A 2019 research published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reported that since 1970 an estimated loss of 3 billion birds took place across the US and Canada. The shift in attitude by the Trump Administration only exacerbates this crisis. 

The new interpretation of the Migratory Bird Act is part of a comprehensive attempt by the current administration to weaken environmental protection mechanisms, which enables the gradual and consistent harming of species across the country. The government’s gutting of conservation provisions reflects its view of wildlife as an insignificant, expendable collateral damage in its quest to maximise profits for certain industry sectors. It is a distorted, sinister approach that we cannot afford to uphold if we want to preserve what we can of the earth’s ecosystems. 

Fish and Wildlife Service was sued over the policy clarification, and it remains to be seen whether the legal challenges mounted against the agency will be successful in reversing its interpretation of the law.

In the meantime, endangered birds across the continent are at an ever-heightened risk of extinction.

Image Carlos Galicia, Pixabay