Title
Consider Directing Staff to Provide Standards for Bird-Safe Buildings for Council to Adopt. (Mayor Spencer) [Not heard March 21 or April 4, 2017]
Body
COUNCIL REFERRAL FORM
Name of Councilmember requesting referral: Mayor Trish Spencer
Date of submission to City Clerk (must be submitted 10 working days prior to meeting): Feb. 27, 2017
Meeting date: Mar. 21, 2017
Brief description of the subject to be printed on the agenda, sufficient to inform the Council and public of the nature of the referral:
Consider directing staff to provide standards for bird-safe buildings for Council to adopt.
Representatives from the Golden Gate Audubon Society shared with City Planner Andrew Thomas and myself the work that they have done in other nearby cities to protect birds, including building standards, as well as tree care and artificial lights (the latter two issues I’ve raised in previous referrals).
From their website: <https://goldengateaudubon.org/conservation/make-the-city-safe-for-wildlife/standards-for-bird-safe-buildings/>
“Approximately 750 million to 1 billion birds are killed in North America each year as a result of collisions with artificial structures. Several hundred million collisions result from windows in buildings, particularly plate glass and other highly transparent or reflective glass. Unfortunately birds have not evolved to navigate an environment of transparent glass. In response to this problem, Golden Gate Audubon joined with San Francisco and Oakland city planning staff and other conservation advocates to design and implement standards for bird-safe buildings. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved Standards for Bird-Safer Buildings in September 2011, which were signed into law by Mayor Ed Lee in October 2011. The City of Oakland’s planning staff added Bird Safety Measures to their standard building permit requirements in June 2013.”
Tree care: <https://goldengateaudubon.org/conservation/make-the-city-safe-for-wildlife/tree-care-and-bird-safety/>
Artificial lights: <https://goldengateaudubon.org/conservation/make-the-city-safe-for-wildlife/learn-about-lights-out-san-francisco/>
They also offer helpful information online:
Healthy trees brochure:
<https://goldengateaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/Healthy_Trees_brochure.pdf>
<https://goldengateaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/Healthy_Trees_brochure_Spanish.pdf>
Inviting Wildlife Into Your Backyard:
<https://goldengateaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/InvitingWildlife-EastBay.pdf>
<https://goldengateaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/InvitingWildlife-Spanish.pdf>