They congregate by the thousands every evening at dusk in business parking lots along Interstate 14 in Killeen, perched atop tall signs, towering light fixtures, automobiles, shopping carts, sometimes swarming
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS” or “the Service”) recently announced the final rule defining “the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA” or “Act”) as it applies to conduct resulting in the injury or death of migratory birds protected by the Act.” 86 Fed. Reg. 1134 (Jan. 7, 2021).
The Service determined “that the MBTA’s prohibitions on pursuing, hunting, taking, capturing, killing, or attempting to do the same, apply only to actions
directed at migratory birds, their nests, or their eggs.”
Id. (emphasis added).
The final rule becomes effective on February 8, 2021.
We previously reported on the Service’s proposal to study the environmental impacts of a change in rule to limit the MBTA to intentional acts. A link to the February 2020 post can be accessed HERE.
Four years of Trump administration attacks on California s public lands, and the lasting impacts
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President Donald Trump visits a neighborhood impacted by wildfires in Paradise, Calif.Evan Vucci/Associated Press
Over the past four years, President Donald Trump s repeated attacks on the public lands of California and beyond have inflamed the conservation community. The administration gutted conservation laws. It denied climate change. It attempted to slash budgets and hollow out crucial agencies.
Together, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the United States Forest Service and the National Park Service manage more than 40% of the land in California. And despite a dramatic increase in visitation to California’s federally managed parks, forests and rangelands in the past few years, the Trump administration has routinely attempted to reduce resources for those agencies.
Image: NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources “North Carolina’s Must-See Bird Migration” webpage
In July 2011, a pipeline owned by ExxonMobil burst near Laurel, Mont., dumping 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the nearby Yellowstone River.
As federal officials reported the damage for weeks afterward, they found American white pelicans, owls and other bird species covered in oil, injured or dead. ExxonMobil agreed to pay $12 million to Montana and the federal government in response.
Under a rule President Donald Trump’s administration finalized last week, one of the legal tools to penalize companies like Exxon whose actions lead to accidental deaths of migratory birds would be unavailable to regulators and prosecutors.