Interesting. Oregon doesn’t seem to mind killing thousands of birds each year from all the wind turbines located around the state, and actually asked for permission to not be held responsible for killing Golden Eagles. But, scaring them? Bad mojo
(Fox News) An Oregon town has reportedly canceled its annual fireworks show out of concern the Fourth of July pyrotechnics will scare sea birds roosting nearby.
Town officials in Depoe Bay have announced the cancellation of the annual pre-Independence Day fireworks show on July 3 following pressure from federal wildlife managers who said the noise disrupts sea birds in the area, the Oregonian reports.
They’ve been holding the display since 1993, and do it on the 3rd so as to avoid competition with better funded displays.More from the Oregonian
Then, in 2010, a Depoe Bay resident contacted the federal wildlife service and reported seeing seabirds nesting at Pirates Cove take flight during the fireworks.
Just to be clear, I have nothing to do with this. But, the envirowackos performed some sort of study, watching what happens to the birds, and concluded that fireworks were mean.
But because the location where the fireworks are launched is on state park land, state officials were warned they could be liable for violating the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a federal law that makes it illegal to harm or kill protected bird species.
When Oregon Parks and Recreation decided not to issue a permit for the event this year, the city had no choice but to cancel.
So, it’s not really the fault of Depoe Bay, but the state weenies, who still haven’t shut down the mostly useless wind turbines which are a blot on the landscape and kill lots of birds, including endangered eagles. Fortunately for Depoe Bay, the ruling has protected them from making lots of money due to people cancelling their plans to come visit on the 3rd for the fireworks display, because we all know that making money is a bad idea in today’s America.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Useless????
Wind provides over 8% of Oregon’s electricity, and that accounts for less than 10% of potential capacity.
gotta get yourself out of the horse and buggy mentality, William…
Yes, and Oregon has very high electricity rates despite having near-free energy source in the Columbia River system.
Does that 8% occur when the wind does not blow?
I read this article the other day. They cited that the birds were within a mile of the launch site. The ESA also specifies that you can’t harass certain species. Thus, anything and everything is considered harassment.
However, if these bird species are migratory and are nesting at this time, then I can understand the concern. Scaring the birds away would leave their nests unguarded.
What they could do is find some city property to launch from that is a further bit away from the birds. Maybe more inland?
And how many birds are killed every year? How many turbines sit useless when it is too windy? Not to mention all the complaints about the turbines spoiling the countryside and parks, along with the noise.
I guess you just hate birds and nature.
Don’t forget the waivers that are sought so they can’t be sued over noise levels.
noise? from silent wind power generators?
“And how many birds are killed every year?”
What do you care? The whole point of this post is to express your lack of concern for birds.
“How many turbines sit useless when it is too windy? ”
Being useless some of the time, and highly useful other times does not add up to being useless overall.
“Not to mention all the complaints about the turbines spoiling the countryside and parks…”
As if you cared about that too….
“I guess you just hate birds and nature”
Some birds will die so that we can have an energy source which does not destroy the whole ecosystem. No need to harm other birds just so you can have another fireworks display when there already are displays in that town.
Teach is also racist. Don’t forget that.
Do you know what really scares birds? Wine. I work in the wine industry and I see hundreds of dead birds every year. And that’s just on one small vineyard in the world.
Birds get tangled in the nets that cover the crop for late harvest varieties.
They make nests in vines and the eggs and hatchlings get sprayed with agriculture chemicals.
Propane ‘cannons’ make explosion sounds to make them scram, also ‘screechers’ imitate the sounds of birds in distress.
We have guns that launch the equivalent of an M80 at flocks that try to land. (Those are fun.)
And lastly we have giant fans to blow air over the vines that chop birds up just like windmills.
Hey does Oregon have a wine industry? Why yes it does. Let’s shut it down.
Nah. Those birds are politically pretty. Screw em.
Besides, liberals just love their wine parties.
Strange that you guys have not picked up on this,,,,but energy generating and wine cultivation are productive enterprises, for which we can accept some collateral damage amongst the birds. Another fireworks display, to go along with the larger, main display, is not particularly productive, and so we should not screw-up the birds just for that.
I know this is “complex” – dealing with a couple of factors all in the same equation, but really….is this beyond your capacity????? Or do you just love ranting so much more than thinking???
Birds being “scared” by fireworks one day of the year for at most a couple of hours hardly compares to the hundreds of thousands of birds, including some that are endangered threatened, killed every year so a pitiful amount of energy can be created so Warmists can feel good.
Yeah, that’s why they’ve been spending the tens of thousands of dollars every year to buy and launch the fireworks. Because it doesn’t make any money for the town whatsoever.
[…] once again we have an over-intrusive federal government and crazed envirowackos taking away people’s liberties in lieu of birds.The federal agency stepped in and affected […]
“Birds being “scared†by fireworks…”
You obviously know it is more than that, since the article you link states:
“The study showed the nearby explosions had an impact. Seabirds were frightened away from nests by the noise, and returned to find that eggs had been damaged or eaten by predators, she said.
“We did document disturbance, including nests that were lost,”
From reading the article we see that the feds also suggested another site for the fireworks, just up the road a bit, but the city refused.
And, to repeat the obvious, 8% of the state’s energy needs, with a large expansion of that imminent, is hardly a “pitiful amount of energy”. Nor is it simply rational people concerned with global warming who should be interested in a local, un-exhaustible energy supply. As I mentioned before, there seems to be a capacity to supply an amount of energy equal to 80% of current usage. What kind of a luddite would willfully turn their back on developing such a resource???
Being that there is no context of this statement, it is meaningless. In fact, the town challenged the methodology of the “study” and of course, nothing came from that.
No, we “see” the city said the new site “was not an option.”
Oh, I dunno… But what type of luddite claims protecting a few birds based on a questionable study is superior to killing thousands of bird by wind turbines?