eNews – February 23, 2010

Newell's Shearwater

A consortium of four environmental groups has filed notice that it plans to sue the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative in Hawaii. The environmental groups claim that the utility has failed to implement measures to prevent rare seabirds from flying into the company’s power lines. Failure to protect the birds is a violation of the Endangered Species Act and other migratory bird statutes, according to the proposed suit. The environmental groups are concerned that Hawaiian petrels, Newell’s shearwaters, and other birds are dying in large numbers due to collisions with power lines.

ProFauna Indonesia warns that the rapid deforestation of Java and other Indonesian islands is posing a serious threat to the nation’s unique wildlife and birds. Nationwide some 3 million acres of forest are being lost annually to development and agriculture. The report found that about 25,000 acres of forest are being lost each year on the island of Java alone, which is home to some of the nation’s endangered species, including the rare Javan hawk eagle.

The Center for Biological Diversity announced plans to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The center is calling on the EPA to evaluate the effect of 400 pesticides on more than 800 endangered bird and animal species in the United States. Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity stated, “EPA’s approach has been to never evaluate the impact of pesticides on endangered species even though it is required to.” The EPA is required to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on any agency activity that affects endangered species. But many pesticides have been approved for use without consultations with the FWS.

In the past, pesticides have been responsible for major declines in bird populations, including the bald eagle and other birds of prey.

Sandy Point, a mile-long barrier island off the coast of Stonington, Connecticut, is a sandy strip that is a favorite nesting spot for shorebirds including piping plovers, sandpipers, and oystercatchers. The only access to the island is by boat. In the summertime, it is a popular site for boaters who anchor offshore and wade in to have cookouts. On several occasions, the nests of shorebirds have been disturbed.

Now the owners of the island have turned over the management of the area to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And the FWS has announced that it will close the island to all visitors during the birds’ breeding season. Wildlife enforcement officers will patrol the island to ensure compliance with the new regulations.

The American Bird Conservancy and two Hawaiian birding organizations are calling on the U.S. Congress to fund a cleanup of buildings contaminated with lead paint at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. The birding groups estimate that since 1996 as many as 130,000 Laysan albatross chicks have died on the atoll from eating chips of lead-based paint, which was used on 70 buildings at the former U.S. Navy installation. Eating the lead paint chips causes a condition called droopwing, which makes it difficult or impossible for the birds to fly, leading to starvation or dehydration. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that cleanup of the atoll would cost about $5.6 million.

In a paper published in the journal Animal Conservation, scientists calculate that a cleanup of the site would save nearly 200,000 birds over the next half century. About 70 percent of the world’s Laysan albatross population nests on the Midway Atoll.

Yellow-Billed Loon

It was not widely noticed that in the $3.8 trillion budget the Obama administration sent to Congress that there was a 5 percent cut in funds for programs that evaluate the worthiness of petitions for listing species as endangered. At the present time, there are nearly 250 species that have been listed by the Fish and Wildlife Service as candidates for Endangered Species Act protections. But the FWS does not have the funds to conduct the research to determine whether these species need protection. The budget cut will further limit the FWS’s ability to make these determinations. Among candidate bird species are the yellow-billed cuckoo, the greater sage grouse, the streaked horn lark, the red knot, Xantus’ murrelet, lesser prairie chicken, and the yellow-billed loon.

Also, the new budget has a 4 percent reduction in funds for the FWS’s efforts to enforce Endangered Species Act protections.

The Center for Biological Diversity believes that the major reason that dozens of animals, birds, and plants face extinction is the vast overpopulation of the human race. The center points out that humans are destroying habitat and creating greenhouse gases that are drastically changing our climate to the detriment of many endangered species.

To raise awareness of the human overpopulation problem, the center unleashed an army of volunteers on Valentine’s Day to pass out condoms with pictures of the spotted owl and other endangered species.

An ornithologist at the Institute of Technology in Sligo warns that the twite, once plentiful in coastal areas of Ireland, is in danger of becoming extinct on the island. It is estimated that there are now only 50 to 100 breeding pairs and the birds are found only in northwestern Ireland.

The twite feeds mostly on seeds. The sharp reduction in traditional farming practices in Ireland has greatly reduced the habitat where the twite can find adequate food.