By Dr. Craig Nazor
On Friday the 13th of all days, in the lovely month of April of 2018, I will be attending a party, hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), to celebrate the delisting of the black-capped vireo from the endangered species list. This party will be held at the headquarters of the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge has a current estimated population of 158 vireos. This delisting process was started during the Obama administration in 2015, but appears to have accelerated during the Trump Administration.
The Draft Post-Delisting Monitoring Plan (PDM) was released in 2017 (available here) And comments can be made here, but they must be in by 4/13/18.
The delisting goes from endangered status to no listing, skipping over “threatened,” for reasons that are easily guessed, but not logically clear. This is just one of a number of Endangered Species Act (ESA) delistings coming down the tubes, and many of these “delisted” species will affect land use decisions in Texas in a big ways for years to come.
As most of you know, the original listings of the black-capped vireo and the golden-cheeked warbler, back in 1987 and 1990, respectively, were very controversial. They were responsible for the formation of a number of state and national protected areas, including a National Wildlife Refuge. Thousands of acres of land became off limits to development, and with these designations, many other rare, threatened, and endangered species were protected as well. This ongoing controversy continues to pit the survival of biodiversity against a popular concept of “property rights,” with the money always on the side of the landowners.
The black-capped vireo’s breeding range is a wide stripe from central Oklahoma, down through the Hill Country of Texas (avoiding both panhandles), and into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico. These birds prefer thick, prickly undergrowth from ground level up to ten or twelve feet, oftentimes on slopes. The problem with being a bird with these requirements is that the typical human uses of land NEVER allow for that kind of habitat - it is impenetrable to both cows and people. Goats and other exotic animals avidly destroy this kind of understory. Furthermore, to maintain that type of undergrowth in wildlands over time requires allowing wildfires to burn periodically, something that is not well tolerated by modern human land use.
Another big problem that this small vireo faces is nest parasitization by brown-headed cowbirds. Unlike the vireo, cowbirds LOVE human alterations to Texas habitat. Because they were originally adapted to following bison herds, they love to live around livestock, eating the things that are found around livestock. In the winter, they fly down to the Texas coast and eat rice and other grains. For these reasons, cowbird numbers have increased enormously in the past 100 years here in Texas. When the nest parasitization rates in vireos reaches 40% or above, according to the USFWS PDM, the vireos need “management.” This means that the vireos need people to go out and trap and kill the native brown-headed cowbird, now too abundant because of drastic human-caused changes to the environment, or step out into the prickly undergrowth, locate vireo nests on difficult terrain, monitor the nests, and at the right time remove brown-headed cowbird eggs. As might be imagined, this management takes time and costs money.
In 1987, there was a known population of 350 black-capped vireos in the USA. In 1996, after ESA rules had been implemented, there were 1,803 birds counted. In 2000-2005, there were 4,464 male birds counted (males are easier to count, because they sing in the spring – but it still takes two to tango). The 2000-2005 count also was the first to include Mexican bird counts. In 2009-2014, there were 5,244 males counted. The biggest jump in population counts occurred when Mexican birds were included in the count. More recently, even though brown-headed cowbird management programs continue, there has been a less significant population increases.
Here in Austin, I have personally observed that black-capped vireos have not done well on protected land as adjacent land has continued to be developed. In 1987, black-capped vireos could be seen at the Wild Basin Preserve on Loop 360 in Austin, but by the early 1990s, all vireos were gone. I used to reliably see these birds in the spring in the parking lot of Hippy Hollow (although visiting that state park with binoculars was a bit embarrassing). They disappeared entirely from that park in the early 1990s, also. That is one thing that has never stopped – the inexorable development of wild Texas hill country land for profit. It’s great if you are one of the few who profit, but it’s not nearly so good for our feathered brothers and sisters, who just need some habitat left the way it once was.
The reduction of vireo habitat shows no signs of stopping, or even of slowing down. So if this bird is going to be delisted and not find itself back in the same situation it was in back in 1987, we better monitor the vireo closely. That’s what the PDM says it wants to do. Here is where we need to read the fine print.
The USFWS Species Status Assessment Report of 2016 states: “The black-capped vireo is a conservation-reliant species, in which some localities require management activities, especially in the eastern portion of the breeding range, to persist.” The PDM states: “To fulfill the PDM requirement [for monitoring], we drafted a black-capped vireo monitoring plan in cooperation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department [TPWD], the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation [ODWC], the Fort Hood and Fort Sills military installations, and the Nature Conservancy of Texas [TNC-TX].”
The fine print, however, found in the letters of agreement with TPWD, ODWC, and TNC-TX, says: “Both parties commit to using available resources within their authorities to implement the provisions of the PDM to the fullest extent possible.” Those agreements also say: “There are no funds specifically allocated to implement the plan.” They also say: “No obligation undertaken by the [USFW] Service or other Federal agency under the provisions of this CMA or the PDM will require or be interpreted as a commitment to expend funds not obligated for that purpose.” The agreements also have a clause that explicitly states that no party may be held liable for any damages done due to failure to perform an obligation required by the agreements. In other words, if these contracted organizations don’t do the monitoring or cowbird management as required to save the species, well, that’s just too bad. Even the contract with the Department of the Army states: “Subject to the availability of appropriate funds.”
Not funding existing obligations has become an acceptable political tactic to avoid doing things that the law requires. Does anyone really think that Governor Greg Abbott, or Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, or President Donald Trump would hesitate for a second to withdraw funding to save the black-capped vireo from extinction?
I didn’t think so. And so I will go to the party and celebrate... what? I’m not sure. But I will let you know how it goes. In the meantime, please follow the link above and make your feelings known!
Photos courtesy of Gil Eckrich
Craig Nazor is Vice Chair of the Lone Star Chapter Conservation Committee.