Photo By Connie Dickey | Annegret Lambrecht, environmental engineer with the Directorate of Public Works, looks...... read more read more
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WIESBADEN, Germany – U. S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden Directorate of Public Works has maintained an aviation bird strike prevention program since 2016 and from the records kept on the program, there has been a definite downward trend.
For example, according to the statistics, the Crows on the airfield have gone from a high of 300 in 2016 to a low of about 100 in 2021. Buzzards have gone from 37 in 2016 to 2 in 2021.
The Garrison’s program supports Installation Management’s vision to provide quality services to support a safe and healthy infrastructure and environment in which to live and work and in support of the local communities and the American people.
Annegret Lambrecht, DPW environmental engineer and manager for the program, has kept records on the program since its inception. Working alongside Airfield Operations, Lambrecht coordinates what the Garrison does to prevent the strikes and the findings are sent through the Bundesanstalt fuer Immobilienaufgaben (BImA, or the German Real Estate Office, Section Federal Forestry) to the German Aviation Control Office.
“I like working on this very important program to prevent aviation bird strike risk on Clay Kaserne,” Lambrecht said. “A lot of resources are put into this program to keep our aviators and aircraft safe.”
She explained that preventing aviation bird strikes includes a variety of deterrence strategies. Food sources like seed-bearing plants and insects are removed, certain areas are covered with netting, spikes are placed on buildings and solar panel lights, vegetation is culled to deter nesting and necessary grass levels are maintained at the airfield.
“I come out to the airfield every Wednesday between 9 and 11 a.m. so I can monitor the birds,” she said. Being consistent keeps the statistics correct.
Lambrecht monitors what types of birds are on the airfield from six different points around the airfield.
The types of birds that Lambrecht monitors include Crows, Buzzards, Common Kestrels, Starlings, Mag Pies, Grey Herons, White Egrets and Pigeons.
The airfield keeps long grass at 30 to 45 centimeters to prevent raptors from seeing mice and rabbits in the area. The long grass is around the area that the fixed winged aircraft land. Shorter grass from about 25 to 30 centimeters is maintained around the helicopters.
“When you look at our statistics you can see a spike in the Buzzard population when the grass is too short,” Lambrecht said. She explained that during the last Berlin Airlift celebration on the airfield in 2019, the grass was cut very short for a display of aircraft, resulting in the population of Buzzards doubling from the time the grass was maintained at its correct height.
Another prevention tool the airfield uses is spikes. “Kestrels and Buzzards will roost on the tops of buildings and our airfield lighting, so we put up spikes to keep them off,” Lambrecht explained. Additionally, netting is wrapped around ceiling heating ducts in the hangars to keep birds from nesting and roosting inside the buildings and to keep them from the aircraft.
Trees and limbs close to the airfield are also cut back to prevent birds from roosting there. A recent tree-trimming operation around the library was done to prevent birds from roosting there as well, Lambrecht said.
The airfield also utilizes a sound cannon that can be fired when aircraft are coming in to land, scaring birds away from the runway. Furthermore, two fox dens have been placed on the airfield, one on each side of the airfield, which helps keep the mice and rabbit population down, preventing another food source for birds.
Next up for the bird strike prevention program is a nest review in March 2022. Lambrecht will be surveying all of Clay Kaserne to gather a complete count of all the active Crows nests, which she does annually. This provides a picture on the Crows colony and the direction they are moving away from the airfield.
| Date Taken: | 02.07.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.07.2022 09:54 |
| Story ID: | 414163 |
| Location: | WIESBADEN, HESSEN, DE |
| Web Views: | 214 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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