Nets installed to keep cliff swallows away from a bridge construction zone in Petaluma, California wound up killing dozens of the birds last year, the Press Democrat reports. The construction firm had to pay a $3,525 fine for killing the birds, but now a local conservation organization has won a victory that will force CalTrans and its contractors on the Petaluma bridge project to use hard plastic sheeting instead of netting to keep the birds away during construction.

Read all the details in the Press Democrat, here.

Roadside construction nets, although these were used on the ground to control erosion, also killed wildlife in New York State. We wrote about it here.

Photo: American tree swallows nesting under the bridge over Cayucos Creek, Cayucos, CA. By marlin harms. Used under Creative Commons license.