2 weeks Ago By Dan Cristol
The unprecedented dismantling of federal government agencies in the name of efficiency has many asking what will happen to the people who depend on government services to survive. The government helps farmers, sick people, children, the elderly, the poor, the unemployed. The federal government also supports birds.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in particular, sustains populations of many endangered species by funding research on the causes of population declines, then addressing these causes and managing avian populations back to self-sufficiency.
The U.S. Geological Survey is also heavily involved in studying threats to birds.
The National Park Service manages many endangered birds within parks. The Forest Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also frequently get involved in protecting birds. The Environmental Protection Agency does too, if pollution is the cause of endangerment.
Some of the most skilled and dedicated wildlife scientists in the world work at these agencies. The bald eagle is a great example of what they can do. Eagles were once close to extinction in the lower 48 states, but biologists studied the issue until the cause of endangerment was identified.
Then laws were passed to protect them from the pesticide causing the problem, and nests were monitored and protected for decades. Now eagles thrive without government assistance and their populations continue to increase in a cleaner nation. The Centers for Disease Control should be especially involved with wild birds right now, as the avian flu epidemic is gathering steam, killing large numbers of wild waterfowl around the country.
(And of course increasing the price of eggs by killing chickens). The current administration froze CDC funds, but then released much of the money that had already been awarded to researchers, with the exception of avian flu research and monitoring. This reportedly remains largely frozen.
Many birds will die as a result, and the risk of a human pandemic may increase, although we won’t necessarily hear about it until it’s too late because reports suggest the CDC has been barred from releasing reports on the bird flu. The main protector of birds, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, was already severely understaffed. Now they have lost hundreds more biologists, with no end in sight. The administration and their lackeys in Congress may eventually go after the laws that protect birds, such as the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
But in the meantime, by firing the people who protect waterfowl from poachers and treat endangered California condors for lead poisoning, they have made the existing laws irrelevant. Laws with no one to enforce them are not going to save birds. If your congressional representative claims to be an outdoorsperson who loves wildlife, consider contacting them and ask what they are going to do about the ransacking of an already underfunded agency that has efficiently and heroically been serving our fish and wildlife since 1940.
Was saving our bald eagle waste and fraud? Dan Cristol teaches in the biology department at William & Mary and can be contacted at [email protected]. To discover local birding opportunities visit williamsburgbirdclub.
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