N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 11-2001: New York state bird conservation area program

§ 11-2001. New York state bird conservation area program.

1. There shall be created a New York state bird conservation area

program which shall consist of such state-owned waters, lands, or

portions thereof as are necessary to safeguard and enhance populations

of wild birds native to New York state and the habitats therein that

birds are dependent upon for breeding, migration, shelter, and

sustenance.

2. Any property designated shall be described and depicted upon a map

and a copy of any and all such documents shall be forwarded to the

commissioner for inventory, research, and reference purposes for the

general public. A master inventory list and maps of properties that are

designated as part of the New York state bird conservation area program

shall be kept on file by the commissioner who shall also deposit a copy

of such at the New York state museum and science service, and at the

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

3. For purposes of this title the term "important bird area" shall

mean a site providing habitat to one or more species of breeding or

non-breeding birds bounded by natural or anthropogenic features or

boundaries. To be eligible for designation under this section a site

must be an important bird area. Any site that meets or matches one or

more of the following criteria in this subdivision shall be eligible

for designation as part of the New York state bird conservation area

program because it is an important bird area.

a. Waterfowl concentration site: a location that regularly supports at

least two thousand birds such as loons, grebes, cormorants, geese,

ducks, coots, and moorhens.

b. Pelagic seabird site: a location that regularly supports at least

one hundred birds of open water such as shearwaters, storm-petrels,

terns, fulmars, gannets, jaegers, alcids, and other like birds and/or

ten thousand gulls at one time during some part of the year so long as

the primary food source for such birds is not anthropogenic.

c. Shorebird concentration site: a location that supports at least

three hundred birds such as plovers, sandpipers, and other like birds

during some part of the year.

d. Wading bird concentration site: a location that supports at least

one hundred birds such as bitterns, herons, egrets, ibises, and other

like birds during some part of the year.

e. Migratory concentration site: a location that is a flight corridor

rest stopover site for an exceptional number or diversity of migratory

songbirds during either spring or fall seasons.

f. Diverse species concentration site: a location that supports a

distinctive group of indigenous bird species that is the consequence of

local habitats that are resultant of unique vegetational, geological,

geographical, topographical, or microclimatological circumstances.

g. Individual species concentration site: a location that supports at

least one bird species during one or more seasons of the year as a

regionally unique, dense (for the species) population.

h. Species at risk site: (1) a location that supports a significant

population of a species that is listed either federally or by New York

state as endangered, threatened, or of special concern, or (2) which

supports a species that is verified by either the commissioner or the

state ornithologist as being rare or declining within New York state, or

(3) an exceptional, rare, or remnant native habitat, vegetative

community, or landscape segment that supports one or more significant

habitat dependent populations of wild bird species.

i. Bird research site: a location where a wild bird population

research and/or monitoring project of at least five consecutive years

duration is conducted and contributes to the science of ornithology

and/or bird conservation policy through publicly accessible scholarly

and/or scientific publications.

4. Designation may be accomplished by the head of any state agency or

entity having jurisdiction over state lands or waters for such

appropriate properties as may exist within their respective

jurisdictions and consistent with their respective missions.

5. A designating state agency or entity shall publish notice

concerning the designation of a New York state bird conservation area in

the environmental notice bulletin prior to such designation. Such notice

shall provide for a thirty day public comment period following

publication of the notice.

6. The head of any state agency or entity having jurisdiction over

state lands or waters previously designated as New York state bird

conservation areas may seek to remove all or a portion of such lands or

waters from such designation provided, however, that prior to such

removal the commissioner publishes a finding that the designated area or

portion of such area no longer meets the criteria in subdivision three

of this section. Such finding shall be published in the environmental

notice bulletin and shall provide for a thirty day public comment period

following publication of the notice.

* 7. a. The Montauk Point shoals area of the county of Suffolk, having

met the criteria of subdivision three of this section, is hereby

declared to be an important bird area and the commissioner shall

designate such area as part of the New York state bird conservation area

program.

b. For the purposes of this title, "Montauk Point shoals area" means

those marine and coastal areas off the shore of Montauk Point, in the

county of Suffolk, extending to the coastal waters within a sixty foot

bathymetric contour that encompasses the area beginning just west of

Shagwong Point on the northern shore of Montauk Point, continuing east

around Montauk Point, and terminating just east of Ditch Plains on the

Atlantic Ocean side of Montauk Point. Such area consisting of waters

that are sixty or less feet in depth, and within between three and

one-half to four miles from the shoreline. Provided, that the

commissioner shall be authorized to change the boundaries of such area,

by rule, as he or she shall deem necessary.

c. That portion of the New York state bird conservation area program

designated pursuant to this subdivision shall be known as the "Montauk

Point shoals bird conservation area".

d. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to impose new fishing

restrictions.

* NB Effective October 8, 2024