Biologist to monitor garbage gulls

From the Queens Gazette:

Newly-released records indicate the city Department of Sanitation (DOS) is spending $700,000 over the next four years to hire a wildlife biologist to monitor seagulls and other birds that could interfere with air traffic around LaGuardia Airport after construction of a new marine trash transfer station near the East Elmhurst airport.
City records indicate the money will pay for services provided by a biologist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Administration officials say the transfer station on the College Point waterfront will not present a hazard to LaGuardia Airport because the facility will be fully enclosed. Officials said trash would also be fully enclosed when it is transferred to the station via barge, thus eliminating any bird threat to the airport.

A 2010 federal study into the bird issue agreed that the transfer station would not pose a hazard to LaGuardia, but recommended that the city hire the wildlife biologist to manage the gulls and other birds that would likely gather there.
–Liz Goff