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Trump’s Relaxed Environmental Rules Allow Industry to Kill Birds With Impunity

The Trump administration has rolled back enforcement of measures designed to prevent bird deaths and habitat destruction.

Many penalties discouraging U.S. businesses, utilities, and developers from killing birds or destroying their habitats are being rolled back under the Trump administration and complying with some conservation measures is now optional, a report says. As a result, planning for an artificial island in Chesapeake Bay, designed to compensate for lost nesting grounds of 25,000 gulls, black skimmers, royal terns and other seabirds has ceased, while birds have been killed and nests destroyed by oil spills, construction crews and chemical contamination with no response from the federal government. Habitat loss and pesticide exposure have brought on widespread bird-species declines; the number of adult breeding birds in the United States and Canada has plummeted by 2.9 billion since 1970. The Fish and Wildlife Service said the Trump administration “will continue to work cooperatively with our industry partners to minimize impacts on migratory birds.”