Birds are under attack!
By Pat Bates, SFVAS Conservation Co-Chair April 23, 2025
Our environment, habitat, and birds are being threatened on multiple fronts including Federal efforts to weaken the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). National Audubon put out an action alert and press release last week about weakening the MBTA. At the same time, Audubon CA is sponsoring AB 454, the CA Migratory Bird Protection Act – it will sunset in 2026 so we are supporting putting it back into play to afford CA birds the same protections as under MBTA – you can read more here and click this link to ask your CA Assemblymember to support this bill. California is a key link in the Pacific Flyway, so anything we can do to protect birds in our region is crucial to their survival. Here is a link through the National Audubon Society to contact your Federal representatives to support bird-friendly legislation and resist weakening of our long standing MBTA and Endangered Species Acts.
Regarding the ESA: the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” in the ESA regulations. The proposed change would eliminate habitat modification or degradation as a basis for regulating impacts on endangered (and many threatened) species under the ESA. Even the total elimination of a species’ habitat would not constitute “harm” under the proposed change! Comments on this rule change may be submitted through May 19, 2025 using this link. The ESA has served us well since it was enacted by bipartisan legislation in 1973, bringing many species from the brink of extinction. SFV Audubon opposes any effort to weaken the ESA by playing games with semantics.
San Fernando Audubon Society is supporting AB 454, and is opposed to any modification weakening protections of the MBTA or the ESA. We urge members to comment on these legislative actions – the future of our birds in the San Fernando Valley and beyond depends on rational legislation.