Speak Up: USFWS to Extend Eagle Kill Permits

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is accepting public comments until midnight 12 July on a proposal to extend eagle "take" permits -- permission to kill or harass protected bald and golden eagles -- from 5 years to 30 years.  The move is intended to make it easier for the wind energy industry, which is building massive wind facilities that are already killing the protected birds.

For some good background, Chris Clarke wrote a great piece on the proposed rule on KCET.  The bottom line, though, is that wildlife officials will end up giving permission to wind companies to kill eagles over a 30-year period, and eliminate flexibility to save the birds if their numbers dwindle during those 30 years.  How will the USFWS save a threatened bald or golden eagle population if they cannot do anything to stop one of the birds' biggest threats -- spinning wind turbines -- because they issued too many permits some 30 years earlier?

Locking wildlife management into 30-year contracts is not an effective way to preserve these majestic species when we do not know what their status will be decades from now.

Please submit your comments opposing the proposed rule on the Regulations.gov website >> here <<.  

You can read the proposed rule >> here <<

You can also sign a petition on the American Bird Conservancy site >> here <<

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