Posted December 29, 2017
Sandhill cranes flock to Northern
Indiana in the thousands as they migrate south for the winter.
An Indiana conservation leader is
criticizing a federal policy change that could have an impact on deaths of
migratory birds.
The Trump administration is
changing the way the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enforces a law meant to
protect migratory birds from accidental deaths. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act,
or MTBA, is a nearly century old law that saw stepped up enforcement
under the Obama administration.
The changes reverse an Obama-era
policy that prosecuted accidental deaths with steep fines. That includes deaths
from wind farms, power lines and open waste pits.
Brad Bumgardner is the Executive
Director of the Indiana Audobon Society. He says more enforcement is necessary,
but says the Obama policy was written too broadly.
“So it allows for a lot of
vagueness on what would qualify as an accidental capture or take,” Bumgardner
says. “A good example would be if you hit a cardinal with your car: does that
count as an accidental killing and does that require the $15,000 fine?”
Bumgardner says that power lines
alone cause 175 million bird deaths a year.
During the Obama administration,
companies were allowed a certain number of accidental kills per year, with
fines levied for each bird over that limit.
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