San Diego Cactus Wren
Andrew Fisher/USFWS
Undoing Trump’s unlawful gutting of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) is a critical first step to getting bird conservation back on track and combating unprecedented declines. But birds need more.
Thankfully, the Biden administration has already indicated an intent to reconsider the previous administration’s MBTA rule by opening a comment period on all related issues of fact, law and policy. And we will be pressing the agency to go back to the drawing board to restore bedrock protections for birds.
Biden’s Interior Department also seems to have little appetite for defending Trump’s mess in court and is dropping the agency’s appeal of our resounding court win last summer, which invalidated the legal opinion and basis for the final rule that limits the MBTA’s reach to purposeful or intentional killing of birds—e.g., illegal hunting and poaching.
Snowy Egret
John J Mosesso/USGS
But we didn’t just lose the last four years, we slammed on reverse just as birds were signaling SOS.
While we must continue the drumbeat to reverse the Trump administration’s anti-wildlife legacy, the critical need to proactively address the devastating threats facing birds and guard against any future attempts to unravel the MBTA cannot be understated.
The immediate next step to reverse bird declines and help us once again meet our treaty commitments and combat the global biodiversity crisis should be a rulemaking to set-up an MBTA incidental take permitting program. Such a program could help set a model for modernizing federal wildlife management by prioritizing and protecting species before they are on the brink.
While the enforcement stick should continue to be wielded in egregious circumstances, like BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the agency’s top priority should refocus on identifying and isolating industry-wide behaviors that impact the greatest numbers of birds that need protection. Focusing on proactive conservation and providing certainty to industry actors that follow best management practices will be the most efficient path towards avoiding needless bird deaths.
Wood Duck at Lake Woodruff
Clarity and funding to implement the MBTA will also be needed from Congress. It’s been over a hundred years since enactment of the law and there is no better time to re-up the MBTA’s conservation mandate and to provide the direction needed to ensure that we can protect our nation’s cherished birds. Only Congress can truly put to rest the Trump administration’s ill-conceived and wrong-headed debate over the statute’s bounds.
Many of these bird species have been around for thousands of years. Let’s give them a chance to thrive for many more.
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February 26, 2021 at 06:28PM
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Ditch Trump's MBTA Rollback. And Birds Need More - NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)
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