Harris hawks patrol landfill
No fly zone: Bird control officer Gail Stanton releases a male Harris hawk at the landfill. The bird is one of several raptors Stanton uses to scare off gulls feeding on garbage.
Email
Print
Letter to Editor
Share
Updated: July 10, 2009 7:56 AM
It’s a nine-to-five job Monday through Friday.
Three Harris hawks and a handler are working to keep nuisance birds such as gulls and crows from calling the Salmon Arm Landfill home and potentially interfering with air traffic.
The Columbia Shuswap Regional District has signed a three-year bird-management contract with Raptor Ranch Inc. of Abbotsford.
The centre is part of a network of rehabilitators, falconers, vets and environmentalists that specializes in non-kill, non-chemical bird control.
According to a Raptor Ranch website, handlers are trained falconers and the centre has developed procedures that are more public friendly and safer for the predatory birds and the prey birds.
CSRD Waste Management Co-ordinator Darcy Mooney told directors at last week’s board meeting that Raptor Ranch had submitted a comprehensive proposal that includes “value-added” options such as public education and outreach programs.
“The proposal is well-linked to CSRD’s Salmon Arm Landfill bird management strategy focusing on nuisance bird control,” said Mooney in a memo to the board.
The price, before taxes, is $191,821 for the three-year term.
Electoral Area C South Shuswap director Ted Bacigalupo noted a cost increase of 2.5 per cent over 10 years and questioned Moody on the installation of a metal plate cover to keep birds from the garbage. Mooney noted that while the cover would indeed be installed within 10 days of the June 25 meeting, any landfill within eight kilometres of an airport is required to have a bird-management plan.
“They (the handlers) are not only focused on the health and safety of workers, the public, aircraft and their own particular birds, but also the nuisance birds that are using the landfill as a roosting place,” said Mooney.
v2
