With more towers, there will be more dead birds. About half the birds were found dead over many months rather than at single night catastrophes. At the current rate of construction, the number of towers in the United States is likely to double to 80,000 by 2010. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was designed to facilitate the rapid build-out of a massive telecommunications infrastructure in the United States. The institution of digital television will add even more tall towers to the landscape.
Similar expansion is underway in Latin America and Canada.
The toll on migratory birds in the Americas from communication towers is likely to increase substantially, but no effort is underway to assess the cumulative impact of towers or to minimize that impact. In 1998, the American Ornithologists' Union, Association of Field Ornithologists, Cooper Ornithological Society and Wilson Ornithological Society approved a joint resolution strongly encouraging the FWS to work with the FAA and the FCC to study the magnitude of the problem, including the preparation of a nationwide, cumulative Environmental Impact Statement. Possible avian mortality is rarely an issue in the decision-making process. What further information is needed It is difficult to devise specific policy solutions or technical mitigation measures because the research is so incomplete at this stage. The research needed to develop prevention measures and appropriate regulations falls into three categories.