By Clara Lincolnhol

A Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision that upheld the state’s first ordinance requiring bird-friendly building construction could spread similar policies to other cities.

Already Middleton, Wisconsin, has passed such an ordinance following the ruling last October,  said Brenna Marsicek, director of outreach at the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance.

The court’s ruling confirms that bird-friendly building ordinances don’t violate the state building code, said Matt Reetz, executive director of the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance.

Bird-friendly construction uses patterned glass to make windows visible to birds. Critics argue that the ordinances impose requirements that are additional or more restrictive than uniform statewide standards, according to court documents.

White dots make the windows of the Consilium Towers in Toronto visible to birds. Image: Christine Sheppard

Madison passed the state’s first bird-friendly ordinance in 2020. Local residents had expressed the need for bird-safe buildings after witnessing birds that died after striking windows, Marsicek and Reetz said.

But building developers and real estate agents sued, claiming such ordinances conflict with the state’s uniform construction code. It was the first time a bird-friendly ordinance had been legally challenged, Reetz said.

An initial circuit court ruling in August, 2022 said the ordinances are valid exercises of zoning power. They regulate features of buildings and do not impose construction standards. Developers appealed.

As the legal battle continued, other communities put similar ordinances on hold, Reetz said. But now, with the case settled, Wisconsin communities can look to the ruling with confidence while crafting legislation.

“If they were able to successfully remove the ordinance it probably would have affected a lot of other municipalities’s ability to institute their own bird-safe ordinances,” Reetz said.

About 599 million birds die each year from window collisions, according to the American Bird Conservancy. The problem has always been a topic of concern among bird conservation groups, but it hit mainstream news in 2024, Reetz said.

This year a window collision killed Flaco, a beloved owl living in New York City. And a staggering 1,000 migrating songbirds died in one night after flying into the McCormick Place in Chicago. These incidents incited public outrage and led to recent demands for more protective legislation.

Four Great Lakes states – Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New York – have adopted bird-friendly regulations, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

A set of guidelines and recommendations for the development of efficient policy is listed by the American Bird Conservancy. It rates Madison’s ordinance as “recommended with reservations.”

Reetz said that the rating is most likely because the ordinance only affects taller buildings. But the ordinance is a step in the right direction.

“Hopefully it opens the door to better, more comprehensive, more effective solutions in the future,” he said.

Although some ordinances are better than others, any ordinance is better than nothing as it saves birds, said Bryan Lenz, glass collisions program director at the American Bird Conservancy.

Some ordinances fail to include building design rules, are optional or only impact certain sections of buildings or only apply to buildings of certain stories, he said.

An unrecommended ordinance “just doesn’t go as far as we would like it to,” Lenz said. “Even the “not recommended” (ordinance) is still a good thing and it’s still saving birds.”

The conservancy’s list serves as a guideline for policy making, he said. Cities then have a reference as to what better policy looks like.

Birds mistake windows as open space, he said. Their forward facing field of vision isn’t as great as people’s. They don’t understand the architectural cues that people do. Besides, people run into glass all the time.

“If I went downtown and put a bunch of large clear glass panes in the street, people would smash into those constantly,” Lenz said.

Companies make bird-safe patterned glass for commercial buildings. The market is not there yet for residential buildings, but there are ways people living in them can make their windows safe.

The easiest thing to do is put an external screen on the outside of your window. People can apply rows of small dots to their windows to reduce collisions, Lenz said. More information is listed on the American Bird Conservancy’s website.

One of the greatest barriers to combating bird window collisions has been the public’s lack of knowledge of what to do, he said.

“We need to have people hear about this a whole bunch and get it normalized,” Lenz said. “The more attention it gets, the better.”

Residential buildings (1-3 floors) account for 43.6% of collisions. An individual residential building kills on average 2.1 birds annually. There are 122.9 million residential buildings in the United States. An estimated 258.1 million birds die from these buildings annually.

Low-rise buildings (4-12 floors) account for 56.3% of collisions. An individual low-rise building kills on average 21.7 birds annually. There are 15.1 million low-rise buildings in the United States. An estimated 327.67 million birds die from these buildings annually.

High rise buildings (12 or more floors) account for 0.1% of collisions. An individual high-rise building kills on average 24.3 birds annually. There are 0.5 million high-rise buildings in the United States. An estimated 12.15 million birds die from these buildings annually.

The percentage of high rise collisions are low because there’s a smaller number of high rise buildings throughout the landscape. However, high rise buildings are dangerous and can lead to mass casualty events, Lenz said.

BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) – Here’s something you may not know: Jackson County is home to Wisconsin’s first established public library. Now, more than 150 years later, the library continues its mission to serve its community.

The library was established in 1872 through Assembly Bill 87, which allowed cities and villages to create free libraries in their community. Black River Falls applied and was the first to be confirmed. Now, more than a century later, it’s still supporting its community.

Works from Stephen King, Agatha Christie and Nicholas Sparks fill the shelves of the Black River Falls Public Library.

“We have over 25,000 items including cake pans and senior connection kits,” Cara Hart, the Black River Falls Public Library Director, said.

It’s a collection bound to grow, with such a long history. The library has been running for 152 years, providing a variety of books for enjoyment and information to learn from.

“We try very hard to meet our community needs, whatever they may be,” Hart said.

One way to do that is through a glimpse into the past.

“People still come and want to look at old newspapers,” Mary Woods, the Black River Falls Public Library Historian, said. “They want to look at those family histories that aren’t available anywhere else.”

Family history is what Jeffrey Jones came looking for.

“I know that my family, my great grandparents moved here in 1868,” Jones said. “I’m here to try to find out more about what happened then where they lived, if their houses are still in existence.”

Jones lives in Sarasota, Florida, and came to Wisconsin to speak in Milwaukee. So, while he’s in the Badger state, he said he had to come to Black River Falls. The public library is no longer in the same building it started, but the impact of its presence and resources persist.

“This connection with my family roots, there’s an emotion involved that I don’t get anywhere else,” Jones said. “I just feel much more connected and that also gives me a greater sense of me.”

Hart said the library provides a variety of other resources to support the community from resume workshops to English language classes and information on the proper ways to clean gravestones. She said feel free to stop in, they’re never overbooked.

Copyright 2024 WEAU. All rights reserved.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Wisconsin funds its state transportation system mostly through a gas tax and various vehicle registration fees. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a proposal to study a mileage-based fee system in 2019, but national efforts are underway to expand such systems as vehicles become more fuel-efficient.

Wisconsin charges $85 to register an automobile with the state, with certain larger vehicles — tractors, trucks, buses — costing more.

It costs an extra $75 to register a hybrid vehicle and $175 to register an electric vehicle, an amount that increased $75 in the most recent state budget. Hybrid and electric vehicle owners pay more to make up for losses in gas tax revenue.

Certain municipalities and counties also assess additional “wheel taxes.” In Madison, for example, in addition to the $85 state fee, residents must pay a $40 registration fee to the city and another $28 to Dane County.

Wisconsin’s main source of road funding is the gas tax, currently 31 cents per gallon, which accounts for 45% of funding. The vehicle registration fees cover 30%.

In the 2019-21 budget the Republican-controlled Legislature approved spending $2.5 million for the Department of Transportation to study mileage-based vehicle registration fees. But Evers vetoed it because he objected “to the financing of another study that will show, yet again, that the motor fuel tax is the most effective way to approximate a user fee of roadway use and the most cost-effective way to collect revenue.”

The 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included $75 million for state and local grants to pilot mileage-based vehicle registration programs. The latest round of grant applications is due May 27.

The state Department of Transportation did not respond to questions about whether it plans to apply for the pilot. Evers’ office noted the last three budgets have taken multiple steps to increase road funding, including most recently dedicating $800 million for road projects and moving the amount of electric vehicle sales tax revenue from the state’s general fund to the transportation fund.

Other U.S. states assess vehicle registration fees in a variety of ways. Some charge based on the type of vehicle. Others charge based on the vehicle’s weight. In some places, registration costs change as a vehicle gets older.

Last year Hawaii became the first state to adopt a mandatory mileage-based registration fee system. The state already requires annual vehicle inspections, and now electric vehicle owners must switch from set fees to a mileage-based system by mid-2028. Other vehicles will be required to do so by the end of 2033.

Oregon, Utah and Virginia have an opt-in mileage-based system primarily for electric vehicles, and Connecticut has a program for trucks, according to Barbara Rohde, executive director of the Mileage-Based User Fee Alliance, of which the Wisconsin DOT is a member.

“There’s interest in Wisconsin,” Rohde said based on feedback she got from a panel discussion in Madison last year. “The gas mileage in all the vehicles that we’re driving are getting so much better fuel efficiency and that has an impact. … I’m hopeful that Wisconsin will be really a part of a real trajectory in the Midwest to look at this.”

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.