Post Bulletin: Developer planned to remove trees with heron nests before approval

The developer of the site of a heron rookery says she wanted trees with heron nests to come down before the birds nested.

Full article here: Developer planned to remove trees with heron nests before approval

Aderonke Mordi says she knew there were great blue heron nests in the trees on the land she had agreed to buy in order to build a development in Rochester Township.

Mordi said Friday she had hired someone to take pictures of the nests from a drone and found no eggs in the nests. She instructed Hathaway Tree Service to cut down the trees, she told the court.

“I told them, OK, go ahead and cut down the trees before they nest,” she said.

Great blue heron nesting sites are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, but only when birds are actually nesting with eggs, chicks or fledglings present in the nests.

Photo by Michael Melford