I just want to quickly preface this by stating that if this is against the rules, I will take it down. I'm not trying to get myself banned here. I am also not trying to convince people how to vote. Especially as I'm not an American, just a concerned Canadian who wants to help educate people on why our birds might be in more danger than they realize.

Edit: Also, as the mod said in the comment below, please don't make any political attacks. We're on the birding subreddit, and this is intended to be an educational post about bird related policy, not a political debate. I'd really love for this to both be able to stay up and for the mods of a bird subreddit to not have to deal with a bunch of political stuff.

Anyway, I'll get straight to the point now. Former President Trump weakened the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during his last term in office. He removed protections for birds so long as they were killed "unintentionally." This basically gives companies the ability to not take bird fatalities into account while making decisions.

He did this very near the end of his time as president, so the changes were reversed soon after by President Biden. However, it should be noted that although the changes were reversed, the act is still not safe.

In the event of any current or future politician removing the protections granted to the migratory birds of North America, we could see bird populations around North America plummet. Whether it's a presidential candidate or politician's in lower offices, the damage that anti bird legislation can do is extremely high. Research your politicians' stances on birds!

To the Americans in this subreddit. Whoever you vote for, please spread the word and do whatever you can to help ensure that these changes are not made. And to everyone else, be aware that we could be seeing huge environmental changes in North America soon.

Some informational links:

https://www.audubon.org/news/trump-birds-drop-dead - Article detailing the first update where Trump removed protections and what could happen if it had not been reinstated later

https://www.audubon.org/news/biden-administration-restores-migratory-bird-treaty-act-protections#:~:text=The Fish and Wildlife Service,with industry to prevent them.&text=Pledge to stand with Audubon,and work towards climate solutions. - Link to the article on the reinstatement of the act. It was an interesting read, as some other achievements were made here.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918 - Wikipedia page for the act

https://www.fws.gov/law/migratory-bird-treaty-act-1918 - Official Fish and Wildlife Service page on the act

I would highly recommend reading these articles. They get into detail that I can not in a simple reddit post.

Edit: Also, I want to highlight this comment by u/defiant-fix2870 . As a non American, I wasn't super familiar with this but it seems very important https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/s/7aLzI1OHtA