Ex wildlife chief: Trump rule could kill billions of birds

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — At a former open pit copper mine filled with billions of gallons of toxic water, sirens and loud pops from propane canns echo off granite walls to scare away birds so y don’t land.

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

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

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

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

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

“Removing that obligation, if it stands, over next several deces will result in billions of birds being casualties,” said Ashe, who served in Obama ministration. “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 rth America, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recent studies.

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

At Berkeley Pit, Montana Resources plans to keep up efforts that drive away almost all birds, in part to avoid a repeat of negative publicity and community backlash that followed 2016 bird kill, according to Mark Thompson, manr of environmental affairs.

“We as a company see it as an essential environmental protection,” Thompson said.

1918 migratory bird law came after many U.S. bird populations h been decimated by hunting and poaching, much of it for fears for women’s hats. Over past half-century, law also was applied against companies that failed to prevent foreseeable bird deaths.

However, Trump ministration says deaths of birds that fly into oil pits, mining sites, telecommunications towers, wind turbines and or hazards should be treated as accidents t subject to prosecution. And an Interior Department proposal would cement that into federal regulation.

State officials and wildlife vocates who are suing ministration in federal court say birds alrey are being harmed under actions allowed by a 2017 Trump ministration legal memo that signaled rule change.

Most table was destruction last fall of nesting grounds for 25,000 shorebirds in Virginia to make way for a ro and tunnel project. State officials h ended conservation measures for birds after federal officials vised such measures were voluntary under new interpretation of law.

move to relax bird law, combined with Trump rollbacks of Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act puts birds and ir habitat at greater risk, said Audubon Society vice president Sarah Greenberger.

Trump ministration proposal follows longstanding pressure from oil companies, utilities and or industries.

Edison Electric Institute, which represents many U.S. utilities, contends it would be “absurd” to criminalize “ordinary, everyday activities” that happen to result in a bird death, which can result in up to six months in prison and a $15,000 penalty for every bird injured or killed.

American Petroleum Institute suggested in a regulatory filing that “ birds mselves are actors, colliding or orwise interacting with industrial structures.”

More than 1,000 s of birds are covered by law, from water birds such as ducks and pelicans, to woodpeckers, songbirds, hawks and owls.

Criminal enforcement of law typically was used only as a last resort, according to current and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials.

ncy conducted 152 investigations into bird deaths across U.S. over a five-year period ending Dec. 31. 2017, according to spokesman Gavin Shire. Most involved birds killed by power lines, which kill urd of 25 million birds annually, according to a 2014 government-sponsored study.

number of investigations resulting in prosecutions was t available, Shire said.

“ goal was to generate voluntary compliance. You do that by educating people,” said Gary Mow, who served as deputy chief of enforcement during a 25-year-career with ncy. “We did a great job of keeping (bird) mortality in control. only regulatory tool that federal government h at its disposal to dress that is w gone or will be gone.”

most table enforcement case bought under migratory bird act resulted in a $100 million settlement by BP, after Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 killed approximately 100,000 birds.

Federal courts have been split on wher companies can be prosecuted, with appeals courts ruling in favor of industry three times and siding against companies twice.

At Berkeley Pit, initial efforts to discour birds from landing were prompted by deaths of 342 sw geese that landed in vember, 1995.

Over next two deces, an aver of six birds per year were found de in pit, Thompson said.

“We quickly learned that warning shots from a high-powered rifle worked great and that pretty much carried us through ’til 2016,” he said.

n in vember 2016 a huge, exhausted flock of sw geese that stayed at ir summer grounds in Cana longer than unusual were forced quickly south by cold wear. y found Berkeley Pit to be only open water to escape a sudden swstorm — and an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 of birds that landed re died.

In response, Montana Resources dramatically ramped up its bird scare tactics and Thompson said it would keep up efforts regardless of Trump ministration’s actions, mirroring pledges from some or companies and industries.

Much of attention over accidental bird deaths has focused on oil companies.

Kathleen Sgamma, president of industry group Western Energy Alliance, said that estimates of as many as a million birds killed annually in oil pits are outdated because companies have shifted away from using open pits to store hazardous waste from drilling.

“ studies haven’t caught up with realities on ground,” Sgamma said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service disputed Ashe’s claim that billions more birds were at risk from rule change and ted that most preventive measures alrey are voluntary ones.

“Without a scientific basis, any claim as to number of birds that would be negatively affected would be speculative and irresponsible,” Shire said in an emailed statement.

Ashe’s estimate that billions of birds were at risk was supported by a leing ornithologist from Cornell University and two former senior officials with Fish and Wildlife Service — Br Bortner, who retired in 2017 from his post as chief of migratory bird program, and Paul Schmidt, ncy’s former assistant director.

“If we’re talking about over deces, and a billion birds alrey are killed by industry annually, that does start really ding up pretty quickly,” said Amanda Rodewald, co-director of Cornell’s Center for Avian Population Studies. “We’re talking about a scale of mortality that’s substantial, that would be meaningful ecologically and biologically.” __

Brown reported from Billings, Montana. This story was illustrated in collaboration with Montana Standard.