A Trump Policy 'Clarification' All but Ends Punishment for Bird Deaths

[spanone]

Bastards


A new interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 2017 means that as of now, companies are no longer subject to prosecution or fines even after a disaster like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 that destroyed or injured about one million birds and for which BP paid $100 million in fines.

WASHINGTON — As the state of Virginia prepared for a major bridge and tunnel expansion in the tidewaters of the Chesapeake Bay last year, engineers understood that the nesting grounds of 25,000 gulls, black skimmers, royal terns and other seabirds were about to be plowed under.

To compensate, they considered developing an artificial island as a haven. Then in June 2018, the Trump administration stepped in. While the federal government “appreciates” the state’s efforts, new rules in Washington had eliminated criminal penalties for “incidental” migratory bird deaths that came in the course of normal business, administration officials advised. Such conservation measures were now “purely voluntary.”

The state ended its island planning.

The island is one of dozens of bird-preservation efforts that have fallen away in the wake of the policy change in 2017 that was billed merely as a technical clarification to a century-old law protecting migratory birds. Across the country birds have been killed and nests destroyed by oil spills, construction crews and chemical contamination, all with no response from the federal government, according to emails, memos and other documents viewed by The New York Times.

-paywall-
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/climate/trump-bird-deaths.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[sakabatou]

1. Goddammit

[RKP5637]

2. FUCKEN ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Backseat Driver]

3. Grrrrr - I hope someone is keeping track of all these despicable changes

for protection of our wildlife

[abqtommy]

4. I decided a long time ago that tRUMP was well worthy of being despised. I can't reach a

higher level of contempt for him but maybe someone else can.

[Crunchy Frog]

5. He hates everything beautiful

And wants it destroyed for the sake of destruction itself.

[StClone]

6. Birdwatchers/Birders did not do enough.

As a former birder I have found too many active birders to actually be closet Conservatives. They also are too busy following an ancient urge for "hoarding": AKA competitive listing where you try to see as many birds as possible in a given time and/or place. At the sighting of a rare bird, birders will think nothing of jumping in a car driving (or flying) as fast as possible, often to great distances, to see the bird for a second and jump back in their car and head off to the next rarity.

And due to constraints, bird groups go "non-profit" and can not fund political fights. So these "bird organizations" go stealth and hope for the best through education and other efforts which I have come to see as ineffectual. Experts with Masters or PhD's in fields of avian ecology, avian biology and Natural Resources are often experts with some value. But are useless as, they are often Government employees under the control of conservatives/big business. Their expertise to aid bird life is essentially neutered.

Rarely do birders, bird advocates, wildlife experts become a big visible movement to confront Conservatives/Republicans in office as a tough in-your-face force for change. If they had, as a real loud angry voice, unconcerned to be seen as fanatical, it could have made a different. As to date the quieter non-political route has not worked to curb resource management failures, pesticides use, or incoherent policies related to climate change. It's a big challenge. But one which may need stronger confrontational terms to turn the corner by those so call birders.

[matt819]

7. So much damage to undo (nt)

[AnnaLee]

8. He hates your children (and his own too)

[malaise]

9. To be kind they are barbarians

Happy Holidays brother

[spanone]

11. And to you my dear friend.

[needledriver]

10. Wait- I thought windmills were bad because they killed birds

Are we saving birds or letting them die?

I’m confused.

[UniteFightBack]

13. Yes this....I posted similar but much more mean spirited considering it's Christmas and all

[UniteFightBack]

12. But just remember liar dump cares about the 'bird graveyard' from windmills. He needs to just DIE

ALREADY oh and Merry Christmas.