Abstract
{Editorial Note: Occasionally an article in the public domain-such as this opinion printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal-is of great interest to most of us who read Watchbird. The following article reflects one learned persons opinion of big government's attitude. You may agree or not. SD.}
Just when you thought the government had managed to regulate everything it could, federal bureaucrats set out to prove you wrong. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has warned ranchers that they could be prosecuted for "taking" an endangered species if one kind of wild bird lays an egg in the nest of another kind. According to the Endangered Species Act "taking" means to "harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct" and is punishable with penalties as high as $50,000 and jail terms of up to a year.
The birds in question in this instance are the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher and the Brown-headed Cowbird. The flycatcher, a federally endangered species, typically nests in willows and other trees along river banks in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and southern parts of California, Nevada and Utah. According to the wildlife service, this flycatcher can be distinguished from other non-endangered subspecies of willow flycatchers because, "Rather than the crisp, sneezy 'fitz-bew' of the northerly subspecies, (it) sings a more protracted, slurred 'fitz-za-bew,' with a burry 'bew' syllable." The cowbird is an unusual but extremely common bird which is found across the country, in circumstances ranging from Western ranches to my own little patch of suburbia in Virginia. Cowbirds are unusual because rather than build a nest, lay eggs and rear their young like other birds, cowbirds sneak into other birds' nests, push out an egg and replace it with an egg of their own. That is the extent of cowbird parenting. The incubation period of a cowbird egg is 10 days, so it usually hatches before its unfortunate foster siblings do. The cowbird chick typically dominates the nest, taking most if not all the food and even pushing the other baby birds out.
Cowbirds are known to parasitize the nests of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, which is not only bad news for the endangered flycatcher but also for cowboys. This March, Jennifer Fowler-Propst of the Fish and Wildlife Service sent a memorandum to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation warning, "to avoid the likelihood of adverse effects (on the flycatcher) in the form of a take, the Service strongly recommends that livestock be removed from (flycatcher) areas by April 15 or as soon as possible thereafter." The penalty would be applied to individuals who hold a permit to graze on lands administered by the Bureau of Reclamation which, like other federal land holding agencies, has allowed private parties to graze by permit. The ranchers affected by this memorandum, although appealing the wildlife service's actions, have pulled out.
The theory behind the wildlife service's action is that cowbirds follow cows, which go near flycatcher nests. The cowbirds then deposit eggs in the nest. The eggs then hatch and subsequently "take" a flycatcher's offspring. According to Bill Moore with New Mexico's Department of Agriculture, one problem with the service's reasoning is that it "has no data to substantiate a relationship between brownheaded cowbird parasitism rates and range livestock grazing." Yet, even if the service had data proving the association, there is a more profound problem: Fish and wildlife officials are threatening to bring charges against private parties because a species of native wildlife continues to do exactly what it has always done. Before the demise of buffalo, the cowbird used to be known as the buffalo bird. It is likely that in order for the buffalo bird to follow the ever-roaming buffalo herds, it had to parasitize other birds' nests rather than building its own. This is no new phenomenon. However, what is extraordinary and radical is the idea that a private party should be responsible for damage done by wildlife owned by government, which is, in a well-established area of law, not responsible for wildlife damage itself.
If one didn't know better, it would appear that wildlife service's proscriptions for protecting the flycatcher are designed to destroy ranching. The agency has some political cover as it can claim it was forced to take action in response to legal pressure from a group called the Forest Guardians. The Forest Guardians are a New Mexicobased group making a hobby of filing notice of intent to sue ranchers under the Endangered Species Act. In meetings with affected parties the Forest Guardians stated that a buffer zone with a 12-mile radius is needed between cattle and flycatcher nests. The forest service has taken the more "reasonable" position that a 5-mile cattle free buffer zone around nests is needed from April through September.