American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and Golden Gate Audubon hailed the signing into law of new Standards
for Bird Safe Buildings by San Francisco Mayor
Edwin Lee. The signing follows the unanimous approval of the bill by the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors last month.
The Standards
will greatly reduce bird deaths and injuries resulting from collisions with
buildings in the city. They include sections on safer windows, night lighting,
and the construction of wind turbines in the urban environment.
“Protecting and
helping birds is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for the
economy and the future of our environment. Birds are invaluable as controllers
of crop insect pests, pollinators of plants, and seed distributors; they also
generate tremendous economic revenues through the pastimes of bird feeding and
birdwatching. We need to do what we can to protect them,” said Eric Mar, the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ member who sponsored the legislation.
“Mayor Lee and
the San Francisco Board of Supervisors are showing national leadership on this
critical wildlife issue. Up to one billion birds die each year in building
collisions nationwide. San Francisco
is acting responsibly by helping to reduce those preventable deaths,” said Dr.
Christine Sheppard, manager of ABC’s Bird Collisions Campaign.
“Bird deaths from
building strikes, one of the main causes of bird mortality in the United States,
can often be prevented with reasonable, affordable measures such as those
described in these standards. The City of San
Francisco’s Standards for Bird Safe Buildings
constitutes a huge step forward in mitigating this problem in the bay area,”
said Mark Welther, Executive Director of Golden Gate Audubon.
Reduction of bird
strikes with new buildings can be achieved with simple and cost-effective
means. For example, fritting – the placement of ceramic lines or dots on glass
– is often already used to reduce air conditioning costs by lowering heat gain
in windows. If fritting is applied in particular patterns, it increases the
visibility of the window to birds and reduces the likelihood of impacts, while
still permitting people to see out clearly from the inside of the building.
The guidelines
also address the effects of light pollution, which can confound birds’ ability
to navigate by the stars during migration. Lighted buildings and towers can
draw birds off course and result in exhaustion, injury, or death for millions
every year. The guidelines will reduce unnecessary interior and exterior
lighting during the bird migratory seasons, reducing risks to birds.
Bird-safe
measures often have other benefits for building owners and operators. For
example, fritting reduces heat gain through windows and decreases cooling
costs. Turning off unnecessary lights can save owners and operators thousands
of dollars a year while greatly reducing risks to birds.
“There are a
number of buildings in San Francisco, such as
the San Francisco
Federal Building
and the De Young Museum, that are, albeit unintentionally, already
bird-friendly. Where new construction is concerned, the bird-friendly options
need not be more expensive, since bird-safe materials and designs can be
incorporated from the beginning,” Sheppard said.
While San
Francisco is looking at this issue on a local level, Illinois Congressman Mike
Quigley has introduced national legislation into the federal House of
Representatives (HR 4797) that calls for each public building constructed,
acquired, or altered by the General Services Administration (GSA) to incorporate,
to the maximum extent possible, bird-safe building materials and design
features. The legislation would require GSA to take similar actions on existing
buildings, where practicable. The terms “bird-safe building materials and
design features” are defined through reference to several publications
addressing those topics.