John Hiatt, conservation chairman for the Red Rock Audubon Society, holds the remains of a Say's Phoebe, a native bird which was found in the base of a PVC pipe mining claim marker near Las Vegas on Nov. 3, 2011. (Bill Hughes/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
RENO — Nevada conservationists and state wildlife officials are stepping up efforts to find and destroy hollow PVC pipes that are used to mark mining claims across the West but also serve as death traps for nesting birds that get stuck inside them.
The plastic pipes sticking upright in the ground tend to attract cavity nesters — birds that rely on confined spaces for secure breeding grounds. The birds fly into the tubes but cannot escape the smooth-sided cylinders and eventually die from dehydration or starvation.
Nevada's Legislature outlawed the tubes a decade ago and authorized the removal of markers people find on public land, but there may still be hundreds of thousands of markers throughout the state.
Christy Klinger, a biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, told the Reno Gazette Journal areas near historic mining districts have the greatest densities of markers. She has identified 55 bird species that have been found in the pipes, plus bats, lizards, snakes and other wildlife.
In Northern Nevada, the Mountain Bluebird, Nevada's state bird, is one of the most susceptible to becoming trapped in the pipes.
Mining claims historically were marked with piles of rocks or wooden stakes. But in the 1970s and '80s, PVC became a cheap and visible way to mark claims because the white pipes stood out in the beige desert hills.
Pushed by conservation groups, the Nevada Legislature in the early 1990s ordered claimants to cap their markers or change them. But Klinger said the legislation was ineffective because claimants ignored it and because caps blew off in the wind.
Conservation groups persisted and Nevada's Legislature authorized the removal of the tubes by anyone starting in 2011. People who find PVC markers on public land can legally remove them and lay it next to where it once stood so birds no longer are attracted to them.
Klinger said the legislation drew a flurry of media attention that spurred wildlife campaigns, but she said they lost momentum as public interest waned over the years.
Part of the problem is there isn't a comprehensive database of where the claims are or how they are marked, she said.
Chris Cutshaw, Northern Nevada stewardship manager for Friends of Nevada Wilderness, said there are likely hundreds of thousands of markers still standing throughout the West, posing an ongoing hazard for wildlife.
"A lot of folks who are keeping their claims active went and switched them out," Cutshaw said. "But a lot of them were just abandoned."
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management referred to the mine markers as "death traps for cavity nesting birds" in a report in 2013.
The agency reported there were more than 200,000 active mine claims and more than 800,000 abandoned claims on land managed by the bureau in Nevada.
Over a roughly two-year period, the bureau and partnering state agencies and volunteer groups knocked down nearly 13,000 markers on 1,500 square miles across the state. For every two markers that were knocked down, one dead bird was found.
A study by the American Bird Conservancy of Nevada mining markers from around the same period found 879 dead birds in 854 markers, as well as 113 reptiles and mammals.
Ash-throated flycatchers and mountain bluebirds were the most recovered carcasses from the pipes. Other dead birds found included woodpeckers, sparrows, shrikes, kestrels and owls.
Earlier this year, volunteers with Friends of Nevada Wilderness headed out to Gabbs Valley to remove markers. They removed 279 markers in one day, finding almost 300 dead birds as well as bats, lizards and bees trapped inside.
While some markers were empty, one had about 30 birds in it while another had about two dozen.
"On this trip we averaged at least one bird per marker. If you're talking about hundreds of thousands of mining claims in Nevada, that turns into a big issue," Cutshaw said.
Klinger said people who come across standing, uncapped markers should remove them and lay them next to where they were standing because they don't attract the birds when they are not upright.
She also recommends turning them upside down to empty any contents and then filling the hole where the marker was with rocks and dirt to prevent it from serving as a pitfall for other wildlife.
