Latest news with #MigratoryBirdsAct
CBC
04-08-2025
- CBC
Winnipegger's $300 fine for throwing things at Canada goose a rare case but a good reminder, lawyer says
Social Sharing A Winnipeg woman has been fined $300 for throwing things at a Canada goose that got in her way as she tried to get into her friend's apartment building. The birds are protected by federal law, which makes harassing them an offence. The woman, now 20, pleaded guilty under federal legislation known as the Migratory Birds Convention Act, after being caught on camera throwing a bottle of leather cleaner and a pylon at the goose to chase it off its nest. "I was just … trying to scare it away," the woman told provincial court Judge Kelly Moar in a Winnipeg courtroom last month. "So you agree that that's what ultimately happened that day? You understand that they are protected birds or you now know that?" Moar asked the woman. "Now I know," she said, her mom sitting beside her. It's a case one expert says offers a window into the world of Canadian wildlife laws. Though it's "fairly rare" for charges to be laid under the act, animal lawyer and educator V. Victoria Shroff said she thinks similar incidents between people and animals happen often, but typically go undetected. "The difference in this case is that person was caught," said Shroff, who works at Shroff Animal Law in Vancouver and teaches at the University of British Columbia's Peter A. Allard School of Law. "It's just a fluke that some passerby happened to have witnessed it and videotaped it…. People need to watch out. Everybody's got a camera in their phone now, and people are watching." Didn't know it's illegal? 'Doesn't matter,' lawyer says The investigation into the Winnipeg case started when an environment officer got a call on May 8, 2024, about a woman harassing a nesting goose a day earlier near a Henderson Highway apartment building, court heard last month. The officer checked the information of the vehicle that was at the scene and contacted the owner, who said his daughter was driving that day. The daughter admitted to authorities to harassing the goose, but said she wasn't in the right headspace because she'd recently learned she was pregnant. While the ticket listed a penalty of $730, a judge agreed to lower the amount. Federal Crown attorney Joan Schmidt said considering the circumstances, she thought a lower fine was appropriate and would still "drive home the message that, as frustrating as geese can sometimes be — because they can be aggressive, especially when they're nesting — they are protected in Canada and you just have to work around them." Shroff said she thinks these kinds of cases boil down to human entitlement and lack of education about the law. "Anytime people see wildlife, they sort of think, 'Well, I was here first. I'm going to do something about this. This animal is in my way and I'm going to take action,'" Shroff said. "And I think that's where a lot of people … come before the court and they say, 'Well, I didn't know that was a crime.' But that doesn't matter." What else isn't allowed — and how much you could be fined Recent news releases from Environment and Climate Change Canada help paint a picture of the kinds of offences that lead to people being charged under the act, and the kinds of punishments they can face, with fines ranging from a few thousand dollars to over $1 million. Last year in Quebec, for example, two people who destroyed bank swallow nests while working on a mound of earth were ordered to pay $60,000 and $5,000, respectively. And in 2019, an oil company in Alberta was ordered to pay $1.775 million after 30 dead great blue herons were found after being exposed to bitumen at a company facility. In Manitoba, conservation officers mostly use the act for hunting enforcement, like hunting without permits or killing more birds than allowed, a provincial spokesperson said in an email. Less frequently laid charges include taking eggs (generally for consumption), possessing live birds (which people often think are orphaned) and selling bird taxidermy or feathers. Conservation officers lay those kinds of charges about three to six times a year, the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada said in an email the federal agency's enforcement officers laid 34 charges under the act last year, which don't include offences that were dealt with through warnings, tickets or fines. If a bird is causing issues, people should contact the Canadian Wildlife Service or other wildlife enforcement for advice, the spokesperson said. The migratory birds legislation comes from a time when Canada goose populations were struggling, and required "extensive and expensive intervention to bolster numbers," the provincial spokesperson said. While their numbers are higher now, "that could change quickly without protections," the spokesperson said. Winnipeg woman fined $300 for throwing things at Canada goose 5 minutes ago A Winnipeg woman has pleaded guilty under federal legislation known as the Migratory Birds Convention Act after being caught on video throwing a bottle of leather cleaner and a pylon at a nesting Canada goose in 2024. "I was just … trying to scare it away," she said.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Indianapolis has all-new streetlights. We need a new color.
The day after daylight savings time sprung ahead, I was driving to work. I was used to making the trip in the light of day and was shocked at how different the streets looked when the sun was back below the horizon. Every Indianapolis driver is on edge driving in early spring. You never know when a chuckhole is lurking in the dark. Luckily, my drive is lit by cobra lights from start to finish. I trucked along in confidence, scanning my field of view, until not eighty yards away from my destination – 'CA-CHUNK!...CA-CHUNK!' I heard the awful rimshot of my car entering and exiting a pothole on my front left, and then the inevitable repeat as the back left followed it in and out. The streets were lit, and I was vigilant. How had I missed it? One of the best initiatives of Mayor Joe Hogsett's administration has been Operation Night Light. This much-needed initiative ended a 35-year moratorium on new streetlights in Indianapolis. In doing so, it not only added around 4,000 new streetlights to sidewalks and roads that had been pitch-black at night, but also swapped out the old bulbs for brighter, more energy-efficient LED bulbs. Opinion: The most incredible city feature you might not notice Better lighting at night is well-understood to improve public safety. That is, if it's implemented correctly. The reason I'd hit that pothole had actually been because the light was too bright. The undirected, harsh white flooded my field of vision, creating a glare that blinded me and hid obstacles in newly formed shadows. This is actually a common problem – extreme glare can hide the crime it was supposed to prevent. The bright-white LEDs create more glare and actually cause more accidents than warmer, dimmer, yellower colors. Of course, lower lights at night also help with sleep and mental health. But it's not just us that I'm concerned about. It's bird migration season, and twice a year, over 40 million birds fly through, and over, Indianapolis in search of sprouting plants, hatching insects and lengthening sunlight. These include fragile species protected by the Migratory Birds Act and the Endangered Species Act. However, while visiting our city, millions of them will die, distracted by harsh lights at night and confused by all-glass skyscrapers downtown. One thousand birds were killed in a single night by a single building in Chicago. The images of the carnage are unsettling, and the downstream ecological impacts are enormous. Migrating insects are affected by this light too. They hatch before the last frost, or migrate in the wrong direction or incinerate themselves. The global insect population is nosediving just as we're beginning to understand they are essential to our survival. Insects are the base consumers that feed the animals we eat, and they are the most efficient way to pollinate our fruits, vegetables and grains. We starve without them. Now, to be clear: I love Operation Night Light. I'd just suggest a small tweak to its implementation that would save the lives of millions of birds and insects, while also protecting people's lives and property better. Change the color of the lights. Warmer colors attract fewer insects and birds than cooler colors, like bright white, while also casting less harmful glare for humans. Anyone who has stared at pure white headlights and wondered if the brights were on knows this. There are other ways to help these creatures, including lighting shields that direct light downwards, and UV coatings on windows that birds can see but are invisible to humans, preventing the all-glass bird murderers downtown from being so lethal. But those cost money, while changing the color of an LED bulb is typically a flick of a switch. Ensuring consistent light colors seems like a win-win for all of us. Sometimes the small changes make the biggest difference. Ronak Shah has been a middle school science teacher in Indianapolis for 13 years. His instruction has been featured in the Washington Post and in the documentary Food First. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy's bright white LED streetlights hurt people, animals | Opinion
Indianapolis Star
25-04-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis has all-new streetlights. We need a new color.
The bright-white LEDs create more glare and actually cause more accidents than warmer, dimmer, yellower colors. The day after daylight savings time sprung ahead, I was driving to work. I was used to making the trip in the light of day and was shocked at how different the streets looked when the sun was back below the horizon. Every Indianapolis driver is on edge driving in early spring. You never know when a chuckhole is lurking in the dark. Luckily, my drive is lit by cobra lights from start to finish. I trucked along in confidence, scanning my field of view, until not eighty yards away from my destination – 'CA-CHUNK!...CA-CHUNK!' I heard the awful rimshot of my car entering and exiting a pothole on my front left, and then the inevitable repeat as the back left followed it in and out. The streets were lit, and I was vigilant. How had I missed it? One of the best initiatives of Mayor Joe Hogsett's administration has been Operation Night Light. This much-needed initiative ended a 35-year moratorium on new streetlights in Indianapolis. In doing so, it not only added around 4,000 new streetlights to sidewalks and roads that had been pitch-black at night, but also swapped out the old bulbs for brighter, more energy-efficient LED bulbs. Better lighting at night is well-understood to improve public safety. That is, if it's implemented correctly. The reason I'd hit that pothole had actually been because the light was too bright. The undirected, harsh white flooded my field of vision, creating a glare that blinded me and hid obstacles in newly formed shadows. This is actually a common problem – extreme glare can hide the crime it was supposed to prevent. The bright-white LEDs create more glare and actually cause more accidents than warmer, dimmer, yellower colors. Of course, lower lights at night also help with sleep and mental health. But it's not just us that I'm concerned about. It's bird migration season, and twice a year, over 40 million birds fly through, and over, Indianapolis in search of sprouting plants, hatching insects and lengthening sunlight. These include fragile species protected by the Migratory Birds Act and the Endangered Species Act. However, while visiting our city, millions of them will die, distracted by harsh lights at night and confused by all-glass skyscrapers downtown. One thousand birds were killed in a single night by a single building in Chicago. The images of the carnage are unsettling, and the downstream ecological impacts are enormous. Migrating insects are affected by this light too. They hatch before the last frost, or migrate in the wrong direction or incinerate themselves. The global insect population is nosediving just as we're beginning to understand they are essential to our survival. Insects are the base consumers that feed the animals we eat, and they are the most efficient way to pollinate our fruits, vegetables and grains. We starve without them. Now, to be clear: I love Operation Night Light. I'd just suggest a small tweak to its implementation that would save the lives of millions of birds and insects, while also protecting people's lives and property better. Change the color of the lights. Warmer colors attract fewer insects and birds than cooler colors, like bright white, while also casting less harmful glare for humans. Anyone who has stared at pure white headlights and wondered if the brights were on knows this. There are other ways to help these creatures, including lighting shields that direct light downwards, and UV coatings on windows that birds can see but are invisible to humans, preventing the all-glass bird murderers downtown from being so lethal. But those cost money, while changing the color of an LED bulb is typically a flick of a switch. Ensuring consistent light colors seems like a win-win for all of us. Sometimes the small changes make the biggest difference.
Indianapolis Star
25-04-2025
- Climate
- Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis has all-new streetlights. We need a new color.
The day after daylight savings time sprung ahead, I was driving to work. I was used to making the trip in the light of day and was shocked at how different the streets looked when the sun was back below the horizon. Every Indianapolis driver is on edge driving in early spring. You never know when a chuckhole is lurking in the dark. Luckily, my drive is lit by cobra lights from start to finish. I trucked along in confidence, scanning my field of view, until not eighty yards away from my destination – 'CA-CHUNK!...CA-CHUNK!' I heard the awful rimshot of my car entering and exiting a pothole on my front left, and then the inevitable repeat as the back left followed it in and out. The streets were lit, and I was vigilant. How had I missed it? One of the best initiatives of Mayor Joe Hogsett's administration has been Operation Night Light. This much-needed initiative ended a 35-year moratorium on new streetlights in Indianapolis. In doing so, it not only added around 4,000 new streetlights to sidewalks and roads that had been pitch-black at night, but also swapped out the old bulbs for brighter, more energy-efficient LED bulbs. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Better lighting at night is well-understood to improve public safety. That is, if it's implemented correctly. The reason I'd hit that pothole had actually been because the light was too bright. The undirected, harsh white flooded my field of vision, creating a glare that blinded me and hid obstacles in newly formed shadows. This is actually a common problem – extreme glare can hide the crime it was supposed to prevent. The bright-white LEDs create more glare and actually cause more accidents than warmer, dimmer, yellower colors. Of course, lower lights at night also help with sleep and mental health. But it's not just us that I'm concerned about. It's bird migration season, and twice a year, over 40 million birds fly through, and over, Indianapolis in search of sprouting plants, hatching insects and lengthening sunlight. These include fragile species protected by the Migratory Birds Act and the Endangered Species Act. However, while visiting our city, millions of them will die, distracted by harsh lights at night and confused by all-glass skyscrapers downtown. One thousand birds were killed in a single night by a single building in Chicago. The images of the carnage are unsettling, and the downstream ecological impacts are enormous. Migrating insects are affected by this light too. They hatch before the last frost, or migrate in the wrong direction or incinerate themselves. The global insect population is nosediving just as we're beginning to understand they are essential to our survival. Insects are the base consumers that feed the animals we eat, and they are the most efficient way to pollinate our fruits, vegetables and grains. We starve without them. Now, to be clear: I love Operation Night Light. I'd just suggest a small tweak to its implementation that would save the lives of millions of birds and insects, while also protecting people's lives and property better. Change the color of the lights. Warmer colors attract fewer insects and birds than cooler colors, like bright white, while also casting less harmful glare for humans. Anyone who has stared at pure white headlights and wondered if the brights were on knows this. There are other ways to help these creatures, including lighting shields that direct light downwards, and UV coatings on windows that birds can see but are invisible to humans, preventing the all-glass bird murderers downtown from being so lethal. But those cost money, while changing the color of an LED bulb is typically a flick of a switch. Ensuring consistent light colors seems like a win-win for all of us. Sometimes the small changes make the biggest difference.
