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RE: [Fwd: MBTA waiver for DOD]



Sorry, I generally I don't sound off from my work email.  I used to work at
the weather office at Westover AFB, MA back in the late 80's.  I called the
grounds maintenance shop and asked them to not cut the grass around the
runway till the Upland Sandpiper's had fledged.  They were very obliging
once they realised the importance of the species.  The point I'm getting at
is the military is not some war mongering group that just wants to destroy.
They hold and preserve more natural habitat than any other government or
private agency in the country and they are more than willing to listen to
reason. If you were an ABA member you would know this from last months
publication.

And while were going on and on about policy's, the US fish and wildlife
department doesn't have such a great track record.  How about introducing
non-native species just to please sportsmen!

How about we leave the partisan politics out of the whole matter!

I like birds and I try to protect them.

Stu
Black Mountain, NC

-----Original Message-----
From: weymouth woods [mailto:weymouth@pinehurst.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 4:10 PM
To: Carolina Birds
Subject: [Fwd: MBTA waiver for DOD]


  Hi - Thought most of you would be interested in this.

Scott Hartley
Weymouth Woods - SNP
Southern Pines, NC

Los Angeles Times
November 14, 2002

Senate OKs Broad Waiver For Pentagon On Migratory Birds

By Elizabeth Shogren, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Wednesday passed and sent to the president
compromise legislation designed to give the Defense Department a broad
exemption from the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protects 850
species of birds from harmful practices.

The bill, which passed the House on Tuesday, is only a partial victory for
the Pentagon, which had sought exemptions from eight landmark environmental
laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean
Water Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Nonetheless,
environmentalists and their supporters in Congress were outraged at the
migratory bird waiver.

"The provision, which was inserted at the Bush administration's request,
will effectively give the Defense Department license to bomb and destroy at
will the natural habitats of migratory birds, endangering more than 1
million birds and curtailing the enjoyment of more than 50 million bird
enthusiasts in this country," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.).

The measure was inserted into the $393-billion defense authorization bill,
which approves funds for a variety of military programs, during a
conference
committee meeting, in which a small group of Senate and House members
hammered out the differences between their two versions of the bill. The
House version contained an exemption; the Senate's did not.

The provision passed Wednesday would give the Defense Department an interim
exemption from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and would direct the Interior
secretary within a year to come up with regulations permanently exempting
military readiness activities from the law. The provision also would
require
the military to take appropriate actions to avoid unnecessarily killing or
harming migratory birds, and to monitor the effect of the exemption on
birds.

Members of Congress who supported the military's requests for exemptions
were angered that Congress had given the military so little of what it had
asked for, especially at a time when it is poised to put American forces in
harm's way.

"The secretary of Defense submitted eight ideas; we enacted half of one,"
said Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah), chairman of the House Resources
Committee.

Hansen said that because the migratory bird provision would shift
responsibility to the Interior secretary, rather than writing the exemption
into law, delays and lawsuits would be likely to keep the military from
getting what it wants.

"That is going to open up a can of worms and is clearly not going to be
sufficient even over the short term," Hansen added.

The Pentagon and its supporters in Congress argued that environmental laws
have been inhibiting training at bases across the country and on the waters
offshore.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act had caused the Pentagon a particular headache
since March, when a U.S. district court in Washington held that the
military
must comply with the act.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based environmental
organization, had sued the Defense Department because the Navy conducts
bombing exercises on Farallon de Medinilla, a 200-acre island in the middle
of the Pacific that is part of the Northern Mariana Islands. Many birds are
killed during those exercises, including some protected by the act, such as
the Micronesian megapode, which is on the endangered species list; great
frigatebirds; and three types of boobys -- masked, red-footed and brown.

The judge ordered the Defense Department to stop the bombing until it came
into compliance with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. During the case, a
government lawyer argued that bird lovers benefit when the military kills
birds because "bird watchers get more enjoyment spotting a rare bird than
they do spotting a common one."

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan reprimanded the government for that argument.
"There
is absolutely no support in the law for the view that environmentalists
should get enjoyment out of the destruction of natural resources," he said.

Peter Galvin, the California and Pacific director for the Center for
Biological Diversity, said his organization would try to fight the
exemption
through the courts and in Congress. He blamed the Bush administration for
creating a climate that encouraged such actions.

"The current administration's attitude toward environmental law is summed
up
by their submission in the case that environmentalists and birders should
enjoy bombing because it makes birds rarer," Galvin said.

Susan Ladd Miller
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 119
Southern Pines, NC  28388
(910) 695-3323
susan_miller@fws.gov