Monday, September 26, 2011

Wildlife study at airport almost finished. Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport (KPKB), Parkersburg, West Virginia

WILLIAMSTOWN - A wildlife study at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport is coming to a close and is expected to help the airport management in keeping the interaction between animals and planes to a minimum.

The ultimate goal of the year-long survey is to lessen the probability of interaction between wildlife and aircraft and meet safety goals, according to Cody Baciuska, president of Loomacrea Wildlife Management.

"We will compile the information we've collected over the 12 months of the survey and give it to the airport as the Wildlife Hazardous Assessment," Baciuska said.

The year-long survey began last December and will conclude in November as Baciuska and biologist Mat Natali do eight separate surveys - four on the airport property and four off the airport property - per month. During the surveys the team is looking at the species of birds, mammals, insects and even grass height to see what kind of problems aircraft could get into with the animals at the facility, Natali said.

"We are most concerned about areas where we see water, which the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport is not one of those," Baciuska said.

Water is an important component to the survey because water fowl are one of the most hazardous species of wildlife to planes.

"Canada geese are the number-one most hazardous birds to aircraft," Baciuska said. "The other is starlings, which tend not to be scared of things and get closer to planes instead of flying away from them.

"We aren't looking for a small number of birds; we are looking at flock sizes as well as species because even one or two geese are fine, but when it's 100, that's a problem," he added.

The 2009 Hudson River plane crash landing was caused by a bird strike to one of the plane's engines and set in motion the federal mandates of both the wildlife hazard assessment and the need for the local airport to install a perimeter fence to control deer and other animals at the property.

"We keep track of every bird heard, whether they are a significant hazard or not because we want a complete assessment of the wildlife at the airport," Baciuska said. "If we were going to identify all of the birds in the area then we are sure to include all of the birds that can be issues."

The need to include the height of the grass around the runways is because tall grass can be a perfect habitat for some birds and other animals while the inclusion of insects in the study is because they are often a food source for other animals.

"Insects are a food source for birds and if there are a lot of insects in an area, there are bound to be a lot of birds," Baciuska said.

The end result of the assessment will be a wildlife management plan for the airport, which should be finished in February, Baciuska said.

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