Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Troublesome geese allowed to live longer
Bentonville officials consider how to solve airport problem
BENTONVILLE — The city is looking at alternatives to solve the geese problem at the municipal airport, including noise and lasers, before resorting to killing them, according to officials.
Members of the Airport Advisory Board, City Council, city staff and Mayor Stephanie Orman have received comments of concern about and opposition to the city’s plan to kill geese at the airport.
The airport board has been contacted by about a half dozen people regarding the issue.
Feedback started after Chuck Chadwick, the airport manager, informed the Airport Advisory Board on Feb. 7 the city was seeking a permit from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to kill the geese.
Discussion about the geese first made it to the level of City Council at its Tuesday meeting.
Geese typically spend about four months each spring at the airport, posing a safety hazard that could
cause a plane crash, officials have said. The board has vetted various solutions over several years.
More than 250 people have been killed worldwide since 1988 as a result of wildlife strikes to aircraft, according to Bird Strike Committee USA, a volunteer organization promoting wildlife strike awareness and reporting. Wildlife strikes to aircraft are estimated to cause more than $900 million in damage to United States civil and military aviation annually, according to the organization.
Several city departments, including the Parks and Recreation and Police, are working together to find an alternative solution to killing the geese, Orman told council members at Tuesday’s meeting.
Council member Tim Robinson asked for more clarity about the situation so he could properly respond when members of the public approached him.
“How many geese have lost their lives?” he asked, referring to the city killing geese. “Did that actually happen?”
Dennis Birge, transportation engineer, said a plane hit a bird Feb. 8, but he didn’t know if it was a goose.
“I don’t know of any goose that has lost its life,” he said. Chuckles throughout the council chambers followed his comment.
Bill Burckart, council member and former Airport Board member, said the board has explored various methods over the years, and it’s important for officials to consider the potential loss of human life.
“It’s a very serious issue, those bird strikes,” he said. “It’s a difficult situation. It doesn’t leave you with a lot of alternatives.”
Octavio Sanchez, council member and Airport Board member, said pilots, passengers and planes need to be the priority, not geese.
“It is better for us to kill as many geese as needed instead of suffering a catastrophe,” he said.
Sanchez said he has told people who have emailed him a lethal solution would be the last resort.
Some alternatives include noise makers, decoys and green lasers to scare the birds away, Birge said.
Orman said city and airport officials are recording when various techniques are implemented and what the outcomes are.
“We’re not taking any options off the table,” Orman said.
The Airport Board has discussed ways to deter geese such as to change the habitat, move them, harass them or kill them.
That habitat is changing with the development of Osage Park north of Bentonville Lake.
Martin Smith of Ecological Design Group, the civil engineer and ecological restoration company working on the 74-acre park north of the airport’s runway, told Airport Board members in December of the possibility of creating a 10-foot to 12-foot fringe of vegetation around the lake’s edge. The span would discourage geese from congregating and moving freely in and out of the lake.
Representatives with wildlife humane societies say the best solutions with long-term effects are a multi-faceted approach that typically includes limiting flock growth, frightening geese and changing their habitat to make it less attractive.
“These solutions are not only more humane but more effective,” Amanda Good, Arkansas director for the Humane Society of the United States, wrote in an email to council members.
She said killing geese will be ineffective as they will repopulate the area. She offered the society’s help to develop a humane program and included a 10-page Canadian goose management plan.
The plan includes a history of geese, their reproductive practices, a seasonal timeline of when nonlethal measures are most effective, and supplemental tools and techniques to a geese management plan.
“This will not be a single-solution issue,” Richard Ham, Airport Board chairman, said in an email response to a concerned resident who recommended partnering with the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue to develop a nonlethal solution. “The challenge is always managing several competing interests-protection of human life primarily, wildlife management and blending aesthetic community landscapes.”
He encouraged board members to do more research so the discussion can continue at the next airport board meeting.