On a crisp fall day as the scent of burning firewood tickles one’s nose, a flock of Canada geese flies through the dusk sky, the birds’ trademark honks punctuating the breeze. This could be an encouraging image, because the best part about Canada geese is when they leave.
Golfers know this better than anybody, since these fowl absolutely love using the links as their restroom. (Especially municipal courses with little incentive or few resources to scare these the flying bags of dung away.) A few days of geese on the golf course can ruin its playability, not to mention one’s clubs, balls, shoes, and clothing.
But a Boston city councilor is concerned the issue is worse than one of mere inconvenience, as these federally protected birds with few predators grow their population. Here’s the Associated Press:
Federal, state, and local governments spend many millions of dollars, perhaps billions, dealing with invasive species like Asian Carp every year. In the case of the Canada goose, it is a classic case of federal protection gone unchecked, yielding a government-created invasive species.
The birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) of 1918, which is nearing its 100th anniversary. The treaty and the resulting act started as a 1916 convention between the United States and Great Britain (Canada was not independent then), and turned into an agreement among the Americans, Canadians, Brits, Japanese, and Soviets.
The goal was laudable: protect migratory birds. Just like with fishing or (gasp) whaling, one bad state actor can endanger an entire species.
A white paper from law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister reads:
You may be wondering: Does this law make Captain “Sully” Sullenberger (in theatres now!) a criminal?
Yep. Violators of the MBTA, of which Canada geese slayer Sully was one, are subject to strict criminal liability for MBTA violations—meaning accident or not, you violated the law. Thankfully, the government did not go after Sully for his bird killing spree.
The fine for individuals can be up to $15,000, but corporations face steeper ones starting at $200,000. The total can reach the millions. And the fines are just part of it. An environmental policy review by Svend Brandt-Erichsen notes that as part of a plea agreement, probation routinely consists of corporations letting the feds get their talons into them. One particular plea deal required a company to “pay restitution to the state, make community service payments for eagle conservation, comply with a migratory bird compliance plan negotiated with FWS and attached to the plea agreement, apply for eagle take permits (ETPs), and pay compensatory mitigation for future eagle mortalities.”
Eagles are, indeed, a special bird to Americans. But eagles represent a small portion of the 836 species covered.
In practice, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has been a wildly successful farce, creating problems without a clear solution for lawmakers whose irritated constituents can do little to protect livestock from growing packs of pestering birds.
One such bird, the black vulture, has appropriately made its way to Washington’s K Street, home to the lobbyist scene. An agricultural extension agent in Kentucky tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that his state is “just glad to share the over-abundance”—and that “maybe they will prey on some of those that continue to support their protection.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggests farmers, ranchers, and others troubled by growing populations of federally protected birds acquire a “kill permit.” The permit would enable those granted it to kill one or a few birds, and leave their carcasses out to scare away the birds to another farm or ranch, where the process begins anew. Permits don’t bring in as much as the commercial pleas, but those in agriculture don’t like the process.
The AP report notes the variety of ways governments and individuals have tried to rid themselves of the geese:
Boston’s parks department “already uses an egg sterilization program, but it’s apparently not enough.”
We’ve long tested Occam’s razor here. Lasers? Explosives? Egg sterilization?
The best solution might be, as they say, the simplest one, and the one that hasn’t been tried in this case: Congress getting together and changing the law.
