Nevada Critic: US Plan to Save Bird Strikes 'Death Blow'

A plan by the federal government to protect a wild bird about the size of a chicken in the western United States has brought strong attacks from critics, including ranchers, energy developers, and public officials.

"It's a death blow," Jeff Williams, a commissioner in Elko County, Nev., told The Elko Daily Free Press. “In the rest of the state, it’s a horrible situation ... In Elko County, it’s the whole county. It’s everything we’ve got. It’s recreation, it’s mining, it’s oil, it’s agriculture." 

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Federal environment minister says Ottawa to protect endangered sage grouse

The Canadian Press

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 14:22:00 CST

OTTAWA - After having its legal feathers ruffled in court, the federal government says it is moving to protect the endangered sage grouse.

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Tuesday the government intends to introduce an emergency protection order for the bird native to the southern Prairies.

She said the order would impose obligatory restrictions to protect the sage grouse and its habitat on provincial and federal crown lands in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The restrictions would not apply to activities on private land, or on grazing on provincial or federal crown lands.

"Through a combination of stewardship measures we are addressing the imminent threats to the Greater Sage-Grouse," Aglukkaq said in a release.

"We will be working with provinces and stakeholders over the coming months to implement these measures."

The sage grouse population in Canada has declined by nearly 98 per cent since 1988, with less than 150 birds now remaining in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Last year environmental groups went to court to force Ottawa to issue an emergency protection order for the bird after the government said discussions about the sage grouse were covered by cabinet confidentiality.

Last month the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the federal government can't use cabinet secrecy to hide debate about the endangered bird.

Conservation groups said Tuesday they were cautiously optimistic about the government's decision, but want more details about the plan.

"We have yet to see when — or even if — the emergency order will be implemented, and whether it will provide real, meaningful protection for these prairie birds and their critical habitat," said Melissa Gorrie, lawyer for the group Ecojustice.

Nature Canada and other organizations expressed similar views, praising the decision but calling on the federal government for more information.

"Some of the key specifics of the order are still unknown at this time, so we're going to have to wait and see all the details before we know what it will mean for this iconic at-risk species," said Ian Davidson, executive director of Nature Canada.

"Even so, we are treating this as a very positive development."

Environment Canada said an emergency order under the federal Species At Risk Act can be used when a species faces imminent threats to its survival.

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Feds look other way as wind farms kill birds -- but haul oil and gas firms to court

Washington –  Lights left on during a foggy night last year at a West Virginia wind farm are thought to be behind the grizzly deaths of nearly 500 songbirds. 

It was the third time it happened -- and each time, the federal government looked the other way. 

Fast forward to last week. Following the deaths of a dozen migratory birds in Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska several years back, a Denver-based oil company was fined $22,500. The company was also ordered to make an additional $7,500 payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.  

The disconnect demonstrates what critics call a blatant double standard that has to change. While the federal government aggressively pursues oil and gas companies for wildlife deaths, it often gives wind producers a pass. 

Proponents say going soft on the wind industry allows it to compete. But environmentalists say, in this instance, it’s unacceptable. 

“The playing field is not leveled,” American Bird Conservancy spokesman Bill Johns told FoxNews.com, recalling the West Virginia incident. “If there had been a serious consequence the first time, there wouldn’t have been a second time and a third time. All they do now is go, ‘Whoops, my bad’ and it’s forgiven.”

The most recent mass bird kill in West Virginia didn’t involve collisions with wind turbines at the sprawling 61-tower complex but instead resulted from a combination of exhaustion and collisions with the substation as the Connecticut warblers, yellow-billed cuckoos and Virginia rails got trapped in the light’s glare and circled in mass confusion before dying.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/17/us-wind-farms-under-fire-for-bird-kills/#ixzz2FPLpfDU5

Feds Seek Comments On Bird Flu Safety Fears

Here's your chance to weigh in on mutant forms of bird flu that have been in the news — the U.S. government wants to know just how scary you think these new viruses are.

The Department of Health and Human Services posted a call for public comments today requesting information on whether the lab-created bird flu viruses "have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety." The government is also asking whether any special precautions need to be considered when scientists work with these viruses.

The move comes after some have criticized officials for not having enough public discussion about these controversial viruses, which were created in the lab as part of an effort to understand how highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu viruses out in the wild might mutate and start a pandemic in people.

Because the genetically-altered viruses are contagious between ferrets, the lab stand-in for people, some critics fear that these viruses could cause a deadly pandemic in humans if they ever escaped the lab. All work has been halted since January, when researchers adopted a voluntary moratorium that was only supposed to last 60 days.

Since then, experts in the scientific community have come to no consensus on whether research should go forward and, if so, under what conditions.

Some microbiologists have argued that the lab-modified viruses should only be studied at labs with the very highest level of containment and security, so-called "biosafety level 4" labs (BSL-4).

But others point out that limiting work to those labs would slow down valuable research, because the world has so few BSL-4 labs. They say experiments can be safely done at a slightly lower level of bio-containment, and that these studies are urgently needed to prepare for the threat of a naturally-occurring flu pandemic.

Before the end of the year, the government plans to hold an international workshop that will consider the risks and benefits of experiments that make highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu more contagious. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has urged that the scientists' voluntary moratorium continue while discussions move forward.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/10/16/163012771/feds-seek-comments-on-bird-flu-safety-fears