Dr. Peter Marra pens PNAS opinion piece about protecting America’s birds
On February 21st, Dr. Peter Marra, Dean of the Earth Commons Institute and Laudato Si’ Professor of Biology and the Environment, published a piece in PNAS demanding that the US Fish and Wildlife Service enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The article, written by Marra alongside Dr. Andrew Farnsworth (Cornell) and Dr. Kyle Horton (Colorado State University), begins by discussing a startling fact: each year, anywhere from 400 million to 1 billion birds die from building collisions in the United States alone. As the number of buildings with glass-heavy designs increases, the number of birds that become disoriented by reflective and transparent materials, and thus crash, increases too. Dr. Marra argues that although tools to minimize these needless deaths are available, such as the MBTA, the pending Federal Bird Safe Buildings Act, and bird-safe solutions for residential homes, increased enforcement and local compliance efforts are essential to protecting America’s birds. To read more, click Here