Stopping Wildlife Services Bird Killings for the airport
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Stopping Wildlife Services Bird Killings for the airport

FROM Lohud.com
July 30, 3018

There are 200,000 Canada geese living in New York, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

What does that mean to you?

A lot of goose poop. Seemingly everywhere. You can’t take a walk in a park, by a lake, river or beach, in a cemetery or almost any other large green space without spotting crappy reminders that they honk among us.

A single goose can produce about two pounds of poop a day — that’s 400,000 pounds of goose poop produced every day in parks and lakes and beaches across New York state.

“Large amounts of Canada goose fecal material on beaches, golf courses, picnic areas, and walkways contribute to negative park patron experiences, exposes park patrons to health risks, and can lead to beach closures,” DEC spokesman Dan Parks said in an email. “In addition, Canada geese also cause damage through their feeding activities and trampling.”

Aviation officials say geese present a hazard — actor Tom Hanks played the title role in the film “Sully” about pilot Chesley Sullenberger, whose plane made an emergency landing in the Hudson River after being struck by a flock of Canada geese.

But how those geese are managed is a century-old controversy, one that has involved celebrities, crosses municipal boundaries and goes from local authorities all the way to the federal government.

A history of hunting

“You gotta know what you’re doing when you let something go,” said Tait Johansson, naturalist-in-residence at the Bedford Audubon Society.

A century ago, there were no resident Canada geese in New York state. The few that were here were “descendants of captive birds released by private individuals in the Lower Hudson Valley and on Long Island,” according to the DEC

Migrant geese would “leave in April and come back in October,” Johansson said. “We used to have a gap in months when there were no Canada geese here.”

Then, in the 1950s and ’60s, what was then called the State Conservation Department intentionally released geese onto wildlife management areas north and west of Albany to establish resident flocks for hunters.

By the 1990s, many considered geese a nuisance, and Clarkstown become a fierce battleground in the War on Geese.

Charles Holbrook, then town supervisor, ordered the geese killed and the meat shipped as food for the homeless. Activists were up in arms.

Actor Alec Baldwin, leading a protest at the Helen Hayes theater in Nyack, challenged Holbrook to publicly shoot a goose himself.

“I would like to see Holbrook get on TV and start blasting away at the geese for everyone to see,” Baldwin said then.

Holbrook replied that there were no geese at the Helen Hayes theater: “Maybe they should have one of those meetings at town parks, where the kids have to wallow in this stuff.”

Baldwin may have moved on to other causes, but goose meat is still on the menu. Westchester County Airport routinely removes geese in the summer, when the birds are molting and flightless.

“Removals consist of corralling the geese, placing them in crates, and taking them to a USDA authorized processor who then donates the meat to food banks in the Lower Hudson valley,” the airport said in a statement.

Federally issued permits

There is no legal rifle or shotgun hunting in Westchester County. Hunters can go for deer with a bow but only in very restricted locations and under specific circumstances.

If, however, a property owner can make a case that geese are a nuisance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will grant a permit to kill geese — with a shotgun, for example —with no regard to municipal boundaries or local laws.

There are at least 14 such “depredation permits” active in Westchester County, according to a information from the USFWS obtained by lohud/The Journal News in response to a Freedom of Information request.

The identity of many of the permit holders was redacted by USFW, citing privacy concerns, but among them are a beach club, a golf course, the county airport and a real estate developer in Yonkers.

Officials make the distinction between hunting and so-called wildlife depredation, which is not restricted to seasons and carries its own set of restrictions.

A statement issued by Westchester County Airport (HPN) specifies that when a firearm is discharged at the airport to remove wildlife, “this is not hunting.”

“Hunting is a recreational activity enjoyed by many and regulated by the New York State Department of Conservation,” the statement says.

By contrast, depredation permits are issued by federal authorities and do not allow the use of blinds, decoys or duck calls.

Despite that distinction, the DEC’s Kevin Frazier said that “Hunters in New York harvest 50,000-80,000 geese annually.”

Claims of conflict

Officials insist that geese are killed when there is no other option.

The DEC uses “an integrated program of nonlethal methods that may include education, habitat modification, harassment, repellents, and exclusion to meet these goals,” Parks said. “When nonlethal methods prove to be ineffective, lethal techniques including egg oiling (egg addling), and taking of individual geese with shotguns.”

At Westchester County Airport, Wildlife Services (WS), a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is tasked with the actual depredation and management.

“Since 2012, WS and HPN Operations personnel have a 98 percent non-lethal interaction rate with wildlife at the airport,” according to an official statement, although “when necessary, USDA WS will also use lethal methods in the removal of wildlife from the airport.”

That’s a problem for some animal activists, who note that members of the state’s Conservation Fund Advisory Board — established by statute to advise state agencies on plans, policies,and programs affecting fish and wildlife — are card-carrying hunters, by law.

“At the time of designation, board members must hold a valid New York state hunting, fishing or trapping license and have held one three years prior,” the DEC’s website says.

That ensures a situation in which hunters are calling the shots, activists say.

"Airport slaughters are big business for Wildlife Services: Killing birds as a means of 'management,' rather than deterring them, ensures a constant supply of revenue, as more birds always come in after others are wiped out,” activist Kiley Blackman said in an email. “Killing birds at airports used to only be done in extreme cases - now, due to Wildlife Services’ urging, its the norm.”

Five miles or seven miles

“Canada geese are identified as the third most hazardous species to aircraft” by the FAA, according to Westchester County Airport Manager Peter F. Scherrer.

There were 13 documented plane strikes with geese at the airport between 1993-2012, six of which caused at least minor damage to the airplane.

Wildlife Services began removing geese from the airport in 2010 and, since then, has taken 1,014 geese as of April, and none since 2015.

FAA’s guidance on bird mitigation advises a circumference of five miles around the airport — in Westchester, Wildlife Services’ permit allows a circumference of seven miles which takes them well across state and municipal borders.

The Town of Greenwich, Conn. used to cull geese but moved to other methods after a public outcry, according to Patricia Sesto, director of environmental affairs.

Westchester County Airport, though, through its federally-issued depredation permit, can and does manage Greenwich’s geese

“Westchester Airport does cull geese as well,” Sesto said. “They make arrangements with private property owners,” but would need to get the approval of municipal leaders “should any town properties be involved.”

Sesto said the airport has never come before the town board for the purposes of goose depredation.

Greenburgh’s Paul Feiner said he’d rather not see birds killed, but that the safety of passengers on planes should be the priority.

"Definitely, if it’s unnecessary I’d rather they not shoot birds,” he said. “If it happens to be something that a plane could crash because it’s not done, that would be a different story.”

But Ken Paskar, an aviation consultant and pilot, said “the airport, in my opinion, does not follow the FAA guidelines on wildlife interdiction and wildlife management.”

Paskar said airports are “supposed to hire a private wildlife management specialist to develop a wildlife mitigation plan and then to actually perform that plan.”

By hiring federal authorities to perform the work, Westchester County Airport has created a situation devoid of oversight, according to Paskar.

“When Wildlife Services creates the plan they approve the plan,” he said. “An independent company is supposed to do the work and then Wildlife Services takes their plan and does the proper oversight.”

“You can’t check and police your own work,” he said.

That has enabled the airport to expand the borders in which it mitigates goose populations, and allowed the airport to be used “as an excuse for culling geese at, say, a park.”

“At the end of the day it’s the FAA’s responsibility,” Paskar said. “When it’s convenient for the FAA they turn a blind eye.”

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