As hard as it is for bird watchers to take their feeders down, there is now a critical reason to do so. Recent unexplained bird deaths in our region prompted organizations such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources to recommend that citizens remove their feeders and bird baths until the cause of the mortality is determined.

Contact your legislators now and ask them to vote in favor of this bill, which will help guide Virginia in controlling the sale of invasive plants. Read on to find out how.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) on October 8, 2020 proposed to “downlist” the species from “endangered” to “threatened,” which would roll back protections essential to its survival. Prematurely removing those protections could cause loss of the hard-fought gains that resulted from current protections.