§ 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