Proposed Cuckoo Protections Cause Confusion, Concern

The western yellow-billed cuckoo, a bird subspecies whose populations have verged on extinction in the western United States, is again up for consideration for special protections under the Endangered Species Act — and the proposal has some farmers and ranchers worried for their livelihoods. For farmers and ranchers in West Texas, the proposal to list the bird's western population as a threatened subspecies — submitted Oct. 3 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — has created questions and few answers. Critics of the proposal, including Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, say the increased protections are unnecessary and could hurt the agriculture industry. But the agency that proposed the special protections has been out of commission and unable to answer questions about the proposal for more than two weeks because of the partial government shutdown. “We oppose the listing of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, as we believe there is inadequate scientific basis for such a listing and it has the potential to reduce economic activity in the affected region,” Lauren Willis, a spokeswoman for the comptroller's office, said in a statement. Proponents of protected status for the bird, however, say the proposal shouldn't come as a surprise, because the animal's habitat has been disappearing for decades. A listing under the Endangered Species Act would protect the cuckoo's habitat from encroaching development and livestock, experts said.  "Cattle eat the cottonwood and willow saplings" — that mature into trees that the cuckoo prefers to nest in — "and prevent regeneration of the riparian ecosystem," said Ken Rosenberg, an applied conservationist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University...more