The Schenectady County Airport recently received a federal grant to study the wildlife living on the airport’s grounds.
According to Schenectady’s Airport Commissioner Stephen Israel, wildlife can be a major hazard to the airport’s operations.
We have 750 acres. Some of the animals have made it their home, including turkeys, geese, seagulls, crows, coyotes and deer, Israel said. `They can be a menace if they come into contact with the planes.`
Birds can get caught in a plane’s engines or dent a plane, taking it out of commission until it can be repaired, or worse, go right through a plane’s windshield.
The Schenectady County Airport has been awarded a $60,000 grant; $57,000 coming from the Federal Aviation Administration; $1,500 from the state; and $1,500 from the county, for a wildlife hazard assessment study.
Israel said the study would develop measures to manage the wildlife around the airport to minimize the dangers to the airport’s operations. The study is scheduled to begin Aug. 1 and take a year to complete.
According to Israel, the Schenectady County Airport handles 65,000 operations a year. Ten percent of those are military operation from Stratton Air Force base, and the remainder are private small jets and business airplanes.
Israel said there have been as many as 30 bird strikes in recent years. Since Jan 1, there have been 15 documented bird strikes.
Israel said the airport is in the migratory pattern of the Canadian geese that have plagued Scotia’s Collins Park in recent years. Airport personnel have taken measures to mitigate the problem by scaring the geese away using firecrackers harassing the birds.
`Geese are high on the intellectual ladder of birds,` Israel said. `They communicate to other birds and baby geese not to go places where they will get harassed, which is what we do.`
Israel said he didn’t know how to combat the coyote population, which prey on the airport’s abundant field mice. Israel said currently a local volunteer has been trapping them.
Managing wildlife is not just a problem for the Schenectady County Airport, but for airports worldwide. The Albany International Airport has its own wildlife management plan that dates back to at least 1995.
Director of public affairs for the Albany County Airport Authority, Doug Myers said Albany International Airport personnel use propane fired cannons, which are stationed around the airport to ensure that birds don’t nest or flock around the airport’s grounds.
Myers said the Albany airport has birds, geese, groundhogs, deer, coyotes, foxes and skunks living on its grounds. He said personnel constantly patrol the perimeter and notify planes if animals are in the path.
The airport takes other measures, like eliminating food sources by controlling the amount of brush and shrubs around the grounds and eliminating any standing water. The airport also has a permit to kill any interfering animal if necessary, although that is a last resort.
`When it comes down to it, the animals are less important than the safety of the plane’s occupants,` Israel said.
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