Asian Bird Flu & Government - The Test

 

What would you think about a deadly serious test for which you were
unprepared and for which you were unable to prepare?  Such a test will
likely arrive in North America within the next 12 months.  I speak of the
arrival of bird flu on migratory birds carrying this disease from either
Asia or Europe.

Before I go on, note this.  I have hunted migratory birds of all stripes for
more than 50 years.  I enjoy hunting them and eating them and watching them.
I enjoy decoys and duck boats and retrievers and all of the traditions and
cultural expressions of waterfowl hunting.  There is no kind of hunting I
enjoy more and my choice of career as a wildlife professional was largely
based on a desire to maintain migratory birds for future generations.  In
short, the prospect of diminished migratory bird populations is a very grim
prospect for me to say the least.

If you have read the papers or watched the TV news lately you could not help
but notice the inevitable arrival of bird flu via migratory birds based on
African, European, and Asian occurrences in the past six months.  Romanian
geese, Turkish ducks, Italian swans, African waterfowl, Israeli turkeys -
all have been identified with the bird flu since it was first noted over a
year ago in Vietnamese domestic ducks and then wild Chinese waterfowl.
While there have been many human deaths to date, there is much concern that
the causative microbe will adapt to a human-to-human form with dire
consequences for millions of humans regardless of age or sex or national
origin or economic status.  According the US Secretary of Health and Human
Services and the Secretary of Homeland Security, the concern is real and the
danger one of the highest order.

Everyone understands and accepts the expected reaction that once a flock of
domestic ducks or domestic chickens or domestic turkeys or domestic geese
are identified with bird flu infections, they will all be killed
immediately.  But what of the migratory birds (ducks, geese, swans, etc.)
that carry the bird flu to North America and then spread it around?

Migratory birds from ducks and geese to starlings and crows move in and out
of farms where domestic fowl are kept.  They poop over these areas.  They
sometimes die in these areas.  They drink water in and rest in these areas.
They congregate daily and nightly at various times of the year in flocks
numbering in the millions.  They spend weeks and months in the winter
congregating on certain waterfowl refuges and on certain farm fields or
certain rivers or bays.  They are killed and eaten by the same coyotes and
foxes and raccoons and eagles that kill and eat domestic fowl.  In truth
they are much greater vectors of a feared pandemic than the chickens on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia or in Arkansas.  They are a greater threat to all
of us than domestic Wisconsin ducks or Minnesota turkeys.

So what about this "test" stuff, you say.  The test will be a public test.
It will be test of US (and Canadian) migratory bird management.  It will be
a test of what was once the most successful and long-running continental
waterfowl management program the world has ever seen.  It will be a test of
a waterfowl management system in shambles and government agencies unprepared
to little more than protect their own jobs and build their own power for
their own ends.

Just after the First World War the Federal government ratified a Migratory
Bird Treaty with Canada and thereby took over all authority and jurisdiction
over several hundred migratory bird species from State governments.  That
authority was first placed in the US Department of Agriculture Bureau of
Biological Survey and soon thereafter transferred lock, stock, and barrel to
the US Department of the Interior US Fish & Wildlife Service where it
remained for over 50 years.

What was "it"?  "It" is the creation of Federal refuges for waterfowl; the
control of depredations (agricultural crops, airports, health hazards, etc.)
by waterfowl; research on waterfowl disease and other factors (predation,
nest cover, management techniques, etc.) affecting waterfowl populations;
and administration of hunting season lengths, bag limits, methods, etc.
Today "it" is a chaotic mix of competing bureaucracies and increasingly
appalling management of migratory birds both the hunted species and the
others.

In the 1980's and early 90's all migratory bird depredation work (money and
personnel - NOT authority) was transferred from Interior to the US
Department of Agriculture and placed in the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS).  This was done because Interior began wooing all
the environmental organizations in order to capitalize on their causes like
Endangered Species, Marine Mammals, Wilderness, etc.  Migratory bird
depredation controls (i.e. killing among other things) like coyote control
out west or mountain lion controls on Federal lands were verboten to all the
new "save the environment" crowd.  Today APHIS can conduct no migratory bird
actions without a permit from Interior.  This is one big reason why the
resident Canada goose problem and cormorant damage have exploded over the
past two decades all over the US.  Interior considered this a success since
they became the darling of the new power players and benefited to the tune
of billions of dollars and thousands of employees.

In the 1990's Interior Secretary Babbitt, in a fit of petulance because a
Republican Congress refused to create a new "environmental research agency",
transferred nearly all of the migratory bird research (people, money, and
facilities) from US Fish and Wildlife Service to the US Geological Survey to
"conduct environmental research".  Not unexpectedly, migratory bird research
shrank to nothing.  US Fish & Wildlife Service had to not only issue permits
for certain research (they less and less supported hunting) but the items
requested for funding by the Geological Survey evolved into the touchy-feely
things that generate jobs and grants for government researchers and
University professors in every field except migratory bird research.

The past 20 years have seen the arrival of yet another player in the field
of migratory bird management.  The EPA more and more has come to see itself
in the mirror as the Federal guru for all wetlands and associated phenomena.
EPA inserts itself into all manner of lawsuits and actions to regulate
water, water users, watersheds, and contaminants in the broadest sense of
that word.

Add in, of course the US Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation
and Forest Service and BLM and all the migratory bird habitat and wetlands
they "own" and "control" (note that I did not say "manage").

Then there is the 800 lb. gorilla within the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The "National Wildlife Refuge System" (formerly a Division within the
agency) is, like the National Park Service, an end unto itself.  Like the
growing power and arrogance of the National Park Service, recent years have
seen National Wildlife Refuge System employee "associations" and
partnerships with environmental groups aimed at better pay, more employees,
more lands, lobbying Congress, more land closures and road closures, and all
the other etceteras that similar historical actions in the National Park
Service have wrought.  There have even been several attempts to make "the
System" a separate agency like their role model The National Park Service
(who would gobble them up in a nanosecond given the opportunity).  Remember
that the National Wildlife Refuge System controls a major portion of the
nation's habitat frequented by the migratory birds that will most likely
bring and spread the bird flu.

Not to be forgotten are all the environmental and animal rights
"Non-government Organizations.  What do you expect the position vis a vis
migratory bird controls will be from Defenders of Wildlife or the Humane
Society of the US or the National Wildlife Federation or the Refuge
Association or the "humane veterinarians or the - I could go on for pages
here but since I am a "hunt-and-pecker" it might aggravate the carpal-tunnel
syndrome in my index fingers.

So, as they say, there you have it.  If domestic fowl are found with bird
flu they get killed.

If wild migratory birds have it:

-         Will we disperse flocks?

-         Will we kill them?

-         How?  Poison or guns or detergents or what?

-         Will we drain certain water areas (refuges)?

-         Will we allow domestic bird owners to protect their flocks from
wild contamination?

-         Will permits be issued for depredation control or effective
research on methods?

-         Will we eliminate urban goose flocks?  How?

-         How is best to disperse or kill ducks or geese or cormorants
or ---?

-         How can water or feed be treated to prevent contamination by wild
birds?  (Remember this may mean [gasp] chemicals.)

-         Will visitors and/or employees be allowed on water areas where
bird flu is or may be?

-         Who will stand up to unnecessary steps and who will make the tough
call to support unpopular steps?

-         What role will State governments play in all this?

Now imagine APHIS not getting a permit for a host of reasons.  Imagine US
Geological Survey not getting any money or support for funding because US
Fish & Wildlife Service wants it for themselves.  Imagine EPA saying they
have jurisdiction because it involves waters.  Imagine US Army Corps of
Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation and Forest Service and BLM et al saying
they can't do anything until they get new money.  Imagine the National
Wildlife Refuge System saying you cannot do X, Y, and Z on a "National
Wildlife Refuge".  Imagine all of our environmental and animal rights
organizations going to court to "protect the Refuge System" or to "save the
birds" or to "save the ecosystem" or to blame it all on Invasive Species and
Global Warming. Imagine the using the 9th Circuit Court.  Finally, imagine
all of the above stirring up their portion of the "general public" to arouse
their passions to send money or write letters and help them "save" whatever.

Is there a likelihood of finger-pointing?  Could one blame the other or
several others?  Does this Rube Goldberg set-up look like something intended
for a swift response?  Does this set-up appear to be one that will encourage
knowledgeable individuals to speak up for what must be done?  Does anyone
think that this is what anyone had in mind when they each coveted and
protected their own little piece of the ever-decreasing pie?

Like I say, it will be a deadly serious test.  Keep this in mind if, God
forbid, the bird flu crosses the Bering Strait and the worst fears of today
become reality.  Remember the politicians and bureaucrats and environmental
extremists and animal rights radicals that created this mess.  Remember how
each of us looked the other way and said it didn't affect us when those all
around us were being mugged of their rights and property and traditions by
these very people.  Soon enough, it may finally affect all of us.

Jim Beers
18 March 2006

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- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist,
Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.
He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and
Washington DC.  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western
Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands.  He has worked for the
Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security
Supervisor in Washington, DC.  He testified three times before Congress;
twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60
Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to
expanding Federal Invasive Species authority.  He resides in Centreville,
Virginia with his wife of many decades.