Claim: Milk River Natural Area, which has been named as an Important Bird Area, is studded with cliffs and eroded sandstone badlands that serve as important nesting and foraging habitat to the area's raptors, the populations of which have experienced rebounds since the 1970s when the insecticide DDT was outlawed.
Evidence: The natural area, which has been named as an Important Bird Area, is studded with cliffs and eroded sandstone badlands that serve as important nesting and foraging habitat to the area's raptors. Raptor populations have experienced rebounds since the 1970s when the insecticide DDT was outlawed, but new concerns about other pesticides and PCBs along with habitat degradation and land use conversion are contributing to the decline of species such as the burrowing owl.