Emperor of all it surveys.

I adore birds and nature but this is completely ridiculous.

[typography font="Ubuntu Condensed" size="24" size_format="px"]Gov’t Posts 61 New Federal Regulations, Including 500-Page Rule to Protect ‘Critical Habitat’ of Flycatcher[/typography]

The federal government posted 61 new regulations in the Federal Register on Friday, including the Department of Interior’s 500-page document outlining a new rule to protect the southwestern willow flycatcher’s “critical habitat” in six states.

That small insect-eating bird’s habitat covers 1,227 miles of streams and 208,973 acres in California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico, on “federal, state, tribal and private lands.”

The flycatcher’s habitat covers 37 counties in those six states, according to the rule posted at www.regulations.gov.

“The effect of this regulation is to conserve the flycatcher’s habitat under the Endangered Species Act,” the summary of the regulation states.

The rule includes hundreds of pages documenting the bird’s habits, including migration and breeding, as well as hundreds of comments.

It also specifies the “special management” that will be required to protect the bird’s habitat, including:

Groundwater and river flow management
Retain riparian vegetation in the floodplain
Manage grazing livestock and other wildlife that could damage the habitat
Limit “recreational impact”
Manage exotic plant species and improve native plant growth
Manage fire risk
Insect management

The rule goes into effect on Feb. 4.

From the 2011 ‘Gila River between Coolidge Dam and South Butte’ report:

And that’s just on the Gila River between Coolidge Dam and South Butte! There are more at the government’s SWF site.

So. This small bird present in at least 37 counties in six states is going to change everything. Not just on public land, but private as well. The government will even indulge in “insect control” for this insect eating little bird.

I just wonder if it occurred even once to the nerds and overreaching lawmakers that this subspecies of willow flycatcher needs to die out so something else could emerge? Mother Nature has her own ebb and flow and our playing God is -to me- one of the great failings of our age.

To summarize: love birds, love nature, these little birds should bugger off as quickly as possible to save us money on needless research.