Brief analysis of FWS rule-making and policy development process.

1. Continuous Policy Formation
and the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act
Isidoro Hazbun
May 4, 2020

2. The MBTA
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA ),
enacted in 1918, is one of the earliest
wildlife protection statutes.
The U.S. FWS
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service
(FWS) is the
oldest federal conservation agency, tracing its
lineage back to 1871.
1

3. Migratory Birds - Budget and Operations
Conservation and
Management
$31M
Permits
$3.6M
Few Staff
160
2

4. Ambiguity and Uncertainty, Problem
Increasingly
Politicized
Ebb and flow between
political administration.
Data Hard to
Evaluate
Limitations, lack of
standardization in studies
of renewable energy
effects on bird.
Interpretation of
Incidental Take
Courts are divided on the
scope of the MBTA,
fomenting ambiguity.
3

5. State of Birds, Context
Changing
Climate
Two-thirds of North
American birds are at
increasing risk of
extinction from global
temperature rise.
Renewable
Energy
The annual loss of birds
from wind turbines was
estimated as high as
573,000 in 2012
Large-Scale
Agriculture
Industrial farming causing
a plummeting of bird
populations.
Industrial
Impact
Air pollution, water and
soil contamination affects
both species diversity and
species richness.
Hunting
History of overhunting
species, pressure to open
public lands.
4

6. Bird Migration Patterns, a Global Phenomena
5
National Geographic, 2018

7. Stages of the Rule-Making Process
6
Rule-Making in Federal Agencies (Cook and Rinfret, 2013)

8. Theoretical Background, I
7
The Three Streams and Rule-Making (Cook and Rinfret, 2013)

9. Theoretical Background, II
8
The Continuous Process of Policy Formation (Feldman and Khademian, 2008)

10. Findings
Endogenous Spillover
Interest Group Influence
9
Multiple Streams in
Institutions

11. Summary
Institutional and political effects on multiple
streams framework and policy formation need to
be better understood.
• Spillover effect, administrative and
political directives.
• Continuous process of policy
formation is not
straightforward/linear.
• Multiple streams can be applied in
the policy formation process,
coupling policy and politics streams.
10

12. • Audubon, John James, 1785-1851. (1944). The birds of America by John James Audubon : exhibited at the Museum of
the Province of Quebec, Quebec City, February 22nd to March 22nd 1944. [Montreal?] :Canada Steamship Lines Ltd.,
• Conkling, T., Loss, S., Diffendorfer, J., Duerr, A., & Katzner, T. (2020, 1 8). Limitations, lack of standardization, and
recommended best practices in studies of renewable energy effects on birds and bats. Conservation Biology, cobi.13457.
• Cook, J., & Rinfret, S. (2013, 6 20). A revised look: EPA rulemaking processes. Journal of Environmental Studies and
Sciences, 3(3), 279-289.
• Cook, J., & Rinfret, S. (2013, 5 1). The Environmental Protection Agency Regulates Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Is Anyone
Paying Attention? Review of Policy Research, 30(3), 263-280.
• Feldman, M., & Khademian, A. (2008). The continuous process of policy formation . In M. Fedlman, A. Khademian, K.
Ahmed, & E. Sánchez Triana (Eds.), Strategic environmental assessment for policies: an instrument for good governance
(p. 219). World Bank.
• Interactive Map: See How Birds Migrate Throughout the Western Hemisphere. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/03/bird-migration-interactive-maps/
• Rosenberg, K., Dokter, A., Blancher, P., Sauer, J., Smith, A., Smith, P., . . . Marra, P. (2019, 10 4). Decline of the North
American avifauna. Science, 366(6461), 120-124.
• Sanderfoot, O., & Holloway, T. (2017). Air pollution impacts on avian species via inhalation exposure and associated
outcomes. Environmental Research Letters , 12.
References
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13. Thank You
Isidoro Hazbun
+1 202 294 0249
isidoro@vt.edu
https://spia.vt.edu/