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Grant to study why airport lures wildlife
Scare tactics used to shoo away geese
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.

Schenectady County has a littleknown “nature preserve” populated with geese, turkeys, deer, crows, seagulls and coyotes.
   The problem is the critters on this 750-acre preserve have to share it with a special kind of bird that doesn’t appreciate the company.
   The preserve is the Schenectady County Airport and the birds, of course, are commercial airplanes and C-130s belonging to the 109th Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard.
   Airport Commissioner Stephen S. Israel would like to remove the non-official birds and other animals from the airport as a safety precaution. “We’ve had difficulties with geese,” he said.
   Geese are not a threat to smaller airplanes, but they are a problem for large, fast-moving craft like the C-130 transports. The 109th currently runs a fleet of 14 C-130s out of the airport. The exact number of flights is not released.
   To combat the critter problem, Israel obtained a $60,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a wildlife habitat study.
   “We will examine why the animals come to the airport and how to modify their habitat to keep them away,” Israel said. The effort will involve non-lethal methods, he said.
   The U.S. Department of Agriculture will perform the year-long study, conducting visits once a month.
   Israel said the geese population at the airport has declined dramatically to three from last year’s total of 160. “We don’t know where they’ve gone,” he said.
   The airport uses firecrackers, car horns, non-lethal shotgun blasts and people yelling at them to scare them off, Israel said.
   Last August, federal wildlife officers killed three Canada geese at the airport after the animals ignored efforts to scare them away, officials said.
   The geese settled at the airport after they were chased out of Collins Park in Scotia, where they fouled the lake and park grounds.
   Officers recognized some of the birds as having come from Scotia because they were wearing collars. State and federal wildlife officials had earlier surveyed the birds at Collins Park and put collars or tags on many of them.
   Scotia-based Save the Geese is currently using a leased border collie to scare off geese at Collins Park and is addling their eggs, Israel said.  

  
  
  

There's money for a grant to study wildlife but not one dime to fix aging infrastructure.

Yeah, I dont get that either......we have a 'grant adminsitrator' where I work....that person is receiving state funds as a paycheck (double my salary) then tries to delegate the duties they should be performing and controling-------not my study, not my pay, not my job..........

$60,000 GRANT! You have got to be kidding me!!! Gee, I guess Scotia should have gotten a grant to get rid of their geese too, huh? This is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard. That would be like getting a grant to see why mosquito's come around during the summer and how to get rid of them! Duh! Nitwits!