SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio homeowner says the city gave him an impossible choice: pay a $300 fine for not trimming a tree branch, or risk violating a federal law that protects migratory birds.
Rob Streeper, who has lived in his Northwest Side home for 18 years, received a notice of violation from San Antonio Code Enforcement in June for a low-hanging branch extending over a public sidewalk. But Streeper said he had a reason he couldn’t comply — a bird was nesting in that branch.
After contacting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Streeper said an agent told him that removing the branch would be a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 — a federal law that protects most native bird species in the United States…