Yesterday, the Fish and Wildlife Service and Minerals Management Service announced that they would cooperate with one another in an effort to protect migratory birds from offshore renewable energy development.  This agreement, announced at the first of twelve regional public workshops of the Obama Administration's new offshore renewable energy program for the OCS, is designed to fulfill the requirements of Executive Order 13186.

Executive Order 13186, signed by President Clinton in January of 2001, charged agencies and executive departments to strengthen their efforts under the Migratory Bird Treat Act. As a result of 13186, several memorandum of understandings were developed that are designed to provide a framework for the federal government to comply with treaty obligations with Canada - 1916, Mexico - 1936, Japan - 1972, Russia - 1978.  Bird conservation will therefore be furthered at a national level and reinforced at the international level as a result of these MOUs based on four bilateral treaties.

Secretary Salazar's recent report entitled The State of Birds 2009 states that at least 39% of migratory bird species are declining and in need of immediate conservation measures. This study notes patterns of troubling declines in bird populations over a short 40 year span. This decline is of course attributed to the failing health of ecosystems and calls for cooperative support to assist in the healing of their current decline.

We should look to our friends in Denmark who have had years of experience dealing with the impact of offshore renewable energy projects on birds. Their studies indicate that the specific construction area for the project, in this case offshore wind farm, is often of very limited significance for water, evidently the birds of the sea judged their distribution in the waters around the project. While this quells concerns about bird collisions, it of course lends some apprehension to the impact of migratory bird patterns that offshore renewable energy projects may present.  Fortunately, these latter concerns have a better chance of being more adequately addressed by having this new agreement to have both FWS and MMS work cooperatively with one another to ensure that our energy dependence does not come at the expense of our migratory friends with wings.