Greetings all, I thought I'd follow up the depressing news of the big blackbird kill in Arkansas with a bit of positive news regarding the long standing problem of bird kills at communications towers. First, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently holding another public comment period on the issue. This stems from a lawsuit led by the American Bird Conservancy & Forest Conservation Council, and a decision by the D.C. Circuit Court that prevented the FCC (under pressure from corporate lobbying) from dismissing the avian towerkill issue. Second, behind the scenes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has conducted tests and found it no longer necessary for towers taller than 350-ft to have steady-burning lights, which are a primary factor in causing bird kills at towers. Tower owners apparently will soon be able to switch off these steady-burning lights (just having flashing lights) and save electricity and maintance costs while also preventing the needless slaughter of perhaps 100s of thousands of night migrating songbirds across the US annually. This is a simple win-win situation that took more than a decade to bring about, and appears close to becoming a reality.
While comments submitted during the previous FCC comment periods regarding this issue are still in play, this current comment period regards input on whether the FCC should conduct a programmatic Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) on its Antennae Structure Registration program. The answer is clearly yes, because the avian towerkill issue is not as much site specific as it involves all towers -- the impact to birds is cumulative and the primary mitigation would involve a change in aviation obstruction lighting regulations for all towers. The FCC currently abides by an Environmental Assessment (EA) program on a tower by tower basis, but this does not address cumulative impacts. Elevating the environmental review of the FCC's antennae structure regulation program to an EIS would help assure that the avian towerkill issue gets the appropriate mitigative attention for cumulative impacts. [e.g., by some estimates, more than 1% of the Cerulean Warbler population is killed at towers annually] So, one of the more significant direct conservation actions for songbirds is before us right now and the comment period ends in 10 days. One of the easiest ways to support this effort is to sign the petition at the Defenders of Wildlife webpage https://secure.defenders.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1769 As with other issues involving Federal Agencies and big corporations, success in instituting strong environmental regulations is dependent upon teamwork of large conservation organizations -- in this case American Bird Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, Forest Conservation Council, and National Audubon Society are all worthy of our support. For those with more time you can find out more information and submit your own comments directly to the FCC at: http://www.fcc.gov/pea All comments submitted to the FCC on this issue since 2003 are available on the FCC webpage http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/comsrch_v2.cgi entering 03-187 in box #1, and then clicking the Retrieve Document List button. Yours in bird, Bill Evans -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
