Building, Glass and Lighting Best Practices Document to be Released

The USFWS Migratory Bird Program has been working with leading experts in the field of bird impacts with building and glass infrastructure to develop a building, glass and lighting best practices document. The document focuses on measures that can be employed in and around home and office facilities to reduce impacts to migratory birds. Avoidance and minimization measure options range from no costs behavioral practices (e.g. turning off lights and moving plants away from windows) to decal, film and retrofit options. The final document is expected to be released within the December 2015/January 2016 time-frame. Once released, it will be accessible on the Building, Glass and Lighting page of the Conservation Measures website. The Migratory Bird Program intends this document to be a reference to USFWS employees and others, including Council agencies to use in communicating and implementing best practices for avoiding and minimizing impacts to migratory bird from building, glass and lighting Infrastructure.

The Migratory Bird Program plans to continue to create a number of products with the help of the partners to educate their own employees and others about the best practices for helping birds avoid collisions with buildings and other infrastructure. Some upcoming products will include an emphasis on options that are both cost saving and bird friendly. The Migratory Bird Program is currently working with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to identify options for new buildings and building retrofits that have a refutable cost-benefit and can also save birds. Stay tuned for more information on this subject in a future installation of the Newsletter.

To see the latest in materials on reducing impacts to birds from building, glass and lighting infrastructure, visit the Building, Glass and Lighting page of the Conservation Measures website.

To see what other federal agencies have been doing to implement measures to avoid or reduce building, glass and lighting impacts to migratory birds, see the article on Federal Agency Facility Management Successes.