I'm both a biologist that loves birding and a retired Navy pilot. I can
tell you that something as small as a sparrow can cause failure of a jet
engine if it is sucked into the intake. If the engine explodes, it can
bring down the airplane. These incidents typically take place during
landing or take off and in the vicinity of populated areas. Personally I
had to abort a flight and make an emergency landing because I hit a turkey
vulture on the wing between my number 3 and 4 engines on take-off. That hit
wiped out the leading edge of the wing. Fortunately it didn't go into an
engine. I was also a passenger in a 737 that ingested a seagull on
take-off. The pilot shut the engine down and had to make an emergency
landing with one engine and a lot of people on board. An enormous effort
has gone into trying alternate ways to keep birds away from airports. I
don't think a really good way has been found. If birds aren't controlled
around airports we either have to give up flying or we have to accept that
there will be multiple accidents every year caused by birds ingested into
jet engines. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world.

Wally Davis
Snohomish

-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Dennis
Paulson
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2016 1:08 PM
To: TWEETERS tweeters
Subject: re: [Tweeters] Renton airport anti-bird measures question

Wildlife Services is a source of one of the substantial environmental
"crimes" in the United States. They kill so many vertebrate animals, just
because one or another segment of our society doesn't like them, that it is
shocking to see lists of the totals every year. If you feel up to it, here
is the list for 2014:
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/prog_data/2014/G/Tables/Table%20G
_ShortReport.pdf

You can go back year after year and add them up to get an idea of activities
like that described at the Renton airport that are surely taking an
unjustifiable toll of some of our wildlife. You can see the totals at the
end.

Speaking of airports, they killed 548 Upland Sandpipers in 12 states in that
year, presumably as aviation threats. Does anyone believe that an Upland
Sandpiper can threaten any kind of airplane? And this is a declining species
that is considered of special conservation concern in numerous states. Or
how about a total of 2,115 individuals of 5 species of swallows? Oh yes,
they do poop a lot. 215,238 golden-plovers were "dispersed" (only 17 were
killed) in that year. What in heck does that mean? That they chased away
almost 600/day every day for 365 days from the same few airports?

You can do your own thinking of why each of these species of birds, mammals,
reptiles, amphibians and fishes is killed.

As far as I know, there has been no successful attempt by conservation
organizations to limit the damages to animal populations caused by Wildlife
Services. That they are part of the Department of Agriculture rather than
the Department of the Interior tells the story.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle, WA_______________________________________________
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