All native birds in the United States, Canada, and Mexico have been protected for more than a century by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (Bald Eagle photo by Paul Konrad).

A big change in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act proposed by the Department of Interior would remove century-old protections on North America’s bird populations by removing prosecution of companies and individuals if they “incidentally” kill birds – even scores of birds – during industrial, construction, and commercial operations. An example of “incidentally killed” birds includes the British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed hundreds of thousands of birds. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act prohibits unauthorized “take” of protected bird species — regulatory-speak for killing, capturing, hunting, selling, or otherwise harming migratory birds.

BP eventually pleaded guilty to violating the Act in connection to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster that killed hundreds of thousands of birds, and as part of the settlement paid $100 million to fund wetlands restoration in the United States to benefit the species impacted by resulting oil spills.

For three years, officials at the Interior Department have worked to exclude accidental deaths from the “take” definition, shielding energy companies, construction firms, land developers, and other corporations and individuals from prosecution if their operations “incidentally” kills birds.

This dramatic rule change to ease companies’ liability for killing birds would not cause unacceptable environmental harm, according to the current administration in an analysis published last Friday that may clear the way for it to finalize a major rollback of environmental laws before the term ends on January 20.

The current administration is racing to make a series of regulatory law changes before President-elect Biden takes office. The change to modify the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s interpretation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act is now open for a 30-day review period, which ends December 28.

To read the entire Washington Post article referenced here, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/27/migratory-bird-treaty-act/ and you can see a related Audubon article on the subject at https://www.audubon.org/news/administration-moves-finalize-bird-killer-policy