Subject: [Tweeters] A distressing news article
Date: Tue Dec 24 15:31:03 PST 2019
From: Jane Hadley - hadleyj1725 at gmail.com

Dear Tweetsters - This is a most distressing article to have to read on
Christmas Eve.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/climate/trump-bird-deaths.html

By Lisa Friedman

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.
<https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6617-mbtahamptonroadsbridgetunnel/b125aef2aad4afb74731/optimized/full.pdf#page=1>"

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.....etc.

Jane Hadley

Seattle, WA

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