BIRD BRAINS

"...you were not born to live like the beasts, but to follow virtue and knowledge." –Dante

The following letter was sent to the Maryland Coast Dispatch:

Editor:

Humans supposedly have the capacity to avoid danger by using the thinking power of our large frontal lobes, but the recent discussion about expanding the Ocean City airport has me wondering if perhaps we often resemble lemmings in our blind insistence on continuing along well-worn paths to destruction.

The airport (known by the Feds as OXB) sits smack in the middle of the Atlantic Migratory Flyway. Collisions between birds and airplanes are a documented danger, causing millions of dollars of property damage and the loss of human life.

In 2000, an extensive study of the wildlife in the vicinity of the airport was done as part of a requirement for the possibility of creating wetlands there as mitigation for permits. In one month alone, more than 1,000 birds of 25 species used the airspace at OXB. That study concluded that attracting additional wildlife to the airport was "contradictory to safe aviation at OXB."

Since we can’t expect the birds to give up their ancient migratory route, we humans have to make the choice. Do we increase the risk by expanding the airport, or do we err on the side of caution by keeping things as they are?

If the wrong choice is made and a plane goes down, I pity the persons who have to live with that blood on their hands.

The study mentioned in the letter above is the "Wildlife Hazard Management Report for Ocean City Municipal Airport" written primarily by R. Scott Healey, Staff Wildlife Biologist for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The first paragraph of the report's introduction is worth quoting.

"Wildlife at airports has become a major concern due to the potential for impacts on human health and safety, as well as the cost of damages to airplanes and the aviation industry (Thorpe 1997, Conover et al. 1995). Throughout aviation history, wildlife-aircraft collisions have resulted in the loss of not only air time and money, but human lives (Dolbeer et al. 2000, Conover et al. 1995). In the last decade alone, the civil aviation industry alone lost over $300 million per year as a result of wildlife strikes (Cleary and Dolbert 1999). Wildlife-aircraft damage is in itself substantial enough to deserve proactive measures in attempts to prevent strikes. With over 80% of wildlife strikes taking place in the airport environment, where better than at the airport to beigin taking corrective and preventive measures to stop wildlife-aircraft strikes. [sic]"

The report goes on to document the many kinds of mammals and birds that pose dangers at the airport. Trust me, it is not something you want to read while waiting to board your flight. But it must be noted that the current airport management has done an effective job of reducing the risks from wildlife. Plus, private pilots know the dangers. Expansion and commercial flying by the public is a different story.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the report online, but I will make a copy available for the County Commissioners if they wish. They seem to be on the right side of this issue.

Of course human safety alone is not the only reason to oppose expansion of the airport. The forested wetland impacts west of Rt. 611 are huge, many times more than all the wetland impacts in the entire State in any year. And these are not just your average wetlands; these are valuable forested wetlands, part of a large forest in a sensitive Coastal Bays watershed. Plainly speaking, this would be an airport built in a swamp. (How about Soggy Bottom Airways? Slogan: You are now free to slosh about the country.)

As a wetland consultant, I think the whole effort to expand the airport is a waste of time and money, because I think that permits to impact these wetlands will never be granted. Wetland permits require that the property owner clearly demonstrates that the economic and/or public need for the project outweighs the value of the lost natural resource. And that's going to be mighty tough to prove here.

So forget it folks; we must remain vigilant, but it ain't gonna happen.