Thursday, May 17, 2012

Goose killings are just the beginning

"In 1960, an Eastern Airlines flight out of Boston crashed because the engines had sucked up a bunch of starlings. There was a huge public outcry to get rid of starlings. Lately, we have been hearing that the geese are a major threat to jet planes. Senator Gillibrand wants to round all of them up & kill them... well, kill them just for being what they are - geese. Last night on Channel 7, there was a big story on how the gulls in Jamaica Bay are a danger to planes:



The story included a guy named Steve Garber who was a "former wildlife manager for JFK". In the story, he says that having breeding colonies of gulls in the Bay is "the dumbest thing in the world" and that the gulls should be "relocated". Relocated where??? He added that when planes fly, "They suck in everything, so when they go through a flock like this every bird nearby will get sucked right in" . The story added that, "The bird colony on these islands is thriving, proof of the Port Authority's and the Federal Government's complete failure to eliminate a threat that they know has existed for at least 40 years." By the way, the "islands" that they are referring to are the marsh islands, the very places that all of us have been trying to protect, preserve & reconstruct, because THEY PROVIDE BIRD HABITAT!

DUH!!! Isn't Jamaica Bay supposed to be a WILDLIFE REFUGE???? After they get rid of the gulls, what species will be the next culprit? After all, those jet engines "suck in everything". The cormorants maybe? They are awfully big birds and there seem to be a lot of them around. And talking about big birds, how about getting rid of the Egrets & Herons? We all know the golden rule of ecosystems: If one species is removed, another species will take over. So if the gulls & the geese are gone, there will be more resources available for whatever species moves in to occupy their niche. And that species may be even more problematic.

NPS is getting away with murder here! They are setting the stage for further industrial expansion into the Bay by permitting the construction of the gas pipeline metering station in the hanger at Floyd Bennet. There hasn't been a peep out of them about the calls for killing the geese. They are DOING NOTHING TO PROTECT GATEWAY AND THE BAY. Plus, there hasn't been a peep out of Congressman Turner, who by the way, supports hydrofracking.

Right now, as we speak, a USDA truck is driving round and round the new parks created (at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars) on top of the old Pennsylvania & Fountain Avenue landfills. The USDA has been doing this every moment of every day, from before dawn till after dusk, for several years now. Their sole purpose is to monitor the bird populations that are attracted to the new parks & determine whether or not they will be a threat to JFK. Mind you, one of the primary reasons that these parks were so carefully planned was ...to provide bird habitat!

The handwriting is climbing higher & higher up the wall here folks & we are asleep at the wheel. Getting rid of large numbers of birds will accomplish two things 1) It will make the Bay "safer" for jets and 2) Once all of those damn birds are gone and the Bay is now "safe" the REAL objective behind all of this can move forward: Expansion of the airport by filling in parts of Jamaica Bay."

- Ida Sanoff

"Well, well, well. After I mentioned the possibility of other bird species being slaughtered, I got the following blurb in an email:

===========
USDA APHIS Notice:
OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC REVIEW FINAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT BIRD HAZARD REDUCTION PROGRAM: JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. "Proposed off-airport hazard management activities include Mute Swan, Double-crested Cormorant, blackbird, crow, Rock Pigeon and European Starling management within a 5-mile radius of JFK. Actions to address risks from resident Canada Geese have been proposed for a seven-mile radius around JFK." Written comments can be sent to: State Director, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services, 1930 Route 9, Castleton, NY 12033-9653, Phone: (518) 477-4837, Fax: (518) 477-4899. The review period closes on June 13, 2012. The Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) can be viewed here. We're going to submit a comment and encourage everyone to do the same.
===========

So they plan to go after every pigeon, starling, swan, cormorant & who knows what else in a FIVE MILE RADIUS. What's next? Sparrows? Mourning doves? Jamaica Bay is on one of the greatest migratory flyways in the world.

I went online to Google Earth. They have this tool where you can measure distance. So I started in roughly the center of JFK & drew a five mile radius circle: New parks at Penn Fountain? In the killing zone. Almost all of Jamaica Bay, including the newly restored marsh islands? In the killing zone. Marsh areas east of Rockaway near Atlantic Beach? In the killing zone.

Then I went to the link & started to flip through the EIS. It starts out with some of the more palatable options: Mowing grass, falconry, etc. Then it really gets going: Removing trees & shrubs & destruction of freshwater wetlands. PlaNYC is putting trees all over the place to absorb storm water. But the Port Authority is permitted to do as it pleases. In the Bay, where there is a huge problem with storm water run off already, the airport is REMOVING trees & shrubbery & filling freshwater wetlands!

Bugs are on the death list too. After all, birds eat bugs. So they are using copious quantities of insecticides which will of course, wash into the Bay. And if we learned anything when NYC started aerial spraying for mosquitoes some years ago, it was that crabs are vulnerable to bug spray. And that includes Horseshoe Crabs. Oh and many fish are really sensitive to insecticides. Which means that an entire ecosystem can just collapse.

Then it starts getting into the real objective: Trapping birds & euthanasia. Oh and shooting 'em too. In addition to the aforementioned starlings, etc. cowbirds & oystercatchers are on the death list too.

Bunnies are also on the death list. After all, hawks like to catch rabbits. So do owls.

Again folks, Jamaica Bay is supposed to be a WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, not a death camp for birds & mammals. And what happens when these great minds figure out that birds can actually FLY from one area to another?"

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The last thing I need is for a jet from or to LGA or JFK is suck in bird causing the engines to fail and fall on us in Queens or be in that jet going down. The dirty geese can be relocated as far as I am concerned. The Jamaica Bay refuse - is nice but I am certain it is badly contaminated with all sorts of chemicals and jet fuel from JFK. Don't even get me started about the Flushing bay at LGA!

Queens Crapper said...

And once again, folks are failing to understand the point. It's not just geese they are planning to kill, it's just about everything that moves within a 7 mile radius of the airport.

georgetheatheist said...

So which will it be?

The King James Version of Genesis I:

"20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and FOWL THAT MAY FLY ABOVE THE EARTH IN THE OPEN FIRMAMENT OF HEAVEN. 21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and EVERY WINGED FOWL AFTER HIS KIND: and GOD SAW IT WAS GOOD. 22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and LET FOWL MULTIPLY IN THE EARTH.

VS.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and LET THEM HAVE DOMINION OVER over the fish of the sea, and THE FOWL OF THE AIR..."

Nu?

Queens Crapper said...

If you think flies will take down a jumbo jet, you really need to have your head examined. What happened to people questioning what government does? Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge has existed for about 50 years next to the airport, with no loss of life due to bird strikes. How is it that all the readers of this blog fail to understand that most bird strikes happen thousands of miles up in the sky and therefore killing things that stay close to the ground wont make air travel any safer? Sully's plane hit MIGRATING geese as proven by DNA analysis, so how does Jamaica Bay factor in here? Try doing a little thinking before giving your blessing to yet another taxpayer funded boondoggle.

Anonymous said...

Remember this?

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/161237/-miracle--pilot-trashes-plan-for-garbage-transfer-station

Anonymous said...

right on crapper - we the people of rockaway endure all kinds of inconvenience for the sake of the nature we love from the roping off of sections of beach ( so the birds nests are undisturbed), to the daily bridge lifts to barge in sand to recreate wetlands (partially so the birds have a place to rest and live), to increased water taxes to improve the waste outflows (so that the fish and birds can thrive) - and now we are simply going to gas the birds, double bag them and ship them to a landfill -kind of ticks me off - if they must cull the flock at least sell some hunting licenses and let people eat them this is just a total waste.

Anonymous said...

I've lived in northeast Queens for almost thirty years and during this time I have seen an increase in the number of geese and gulls in the area.

Take a stroll by Bowne park; geese and gulls are common visitors to the pond area. Take a look at the height of the grass. It's cut about onece a month at best. The geese are constantly eating it and some of the locals feed them with stale bread and god knows what.

I was in Crocheron park last week and the same thing. The pond there also attracts geese and across the Cross Island the birds are almost year round residents.

Go to the Home Depot in College Point and you'll see many geese/gulls.

Go to Pathmark off of The Whitestone Expy and sit in the parking lot for a while, especially at dusk, and you'll see flocks of geese flying toward the old Flushing Airport for the evening. And if you are lucky a gull won't poop on your car.

Face it, Gulls live near the water and geese are waterfowl. The government has spent untolled amounts of cash cleaning up the local waters and estuaries in an effort to be "Green". It has worked! And one of the resultants is an increase in Geese and Gulls. Now the government wants to eliminate them. Go figure.

If the government would spend a little extra cash on grants to the Department of Parks we might see more mowing of the grasses. If the local gov't would be more careful with the garbage at College Point we'd see less gulls. If the gov't would do something about the old airport the geese might not find it such a welcoming home. However, I have no idea what to do with Jamaica Bay. I would think that current radar technolgy would be able to pick up flocks of birds which might cross flight paths and warn the pilots or adjust the birds flight direction.

The authorities just can't whack flocks of healthy creatures with impugnity. Research must find solutions to these problems.

Anonymous said...

The real problem is that Idlewild is the wrong place for an airport in the jet age. It was started in the 40's.

Ed Unneland

Joe said...

The people are worried about bird strikes during take-off because all these new Airplanes like these Airbus jets are dangerously underpowered.
They are based on fuel economy and to make things worse they were made so less experienced pilots can fly them.
If an emergency during a climb is far more deadly then with old airliners.
With these new airliners computers that control all the flight surfaces and engines cant deal with "real flight" bird strikes and sudden catastrophic engine failures.
When the shit hits the fan (literally) the 2 people in the cockpit have to give perhaps 150 commands to wrestle control away from the computer wile dealing with blown engine (or 2) at the same time.
NO WAY would the airline industry, government or pilot who wants to keep flying admit this.

The only reason all those people lived in the Hudson river incident is because the pilot (Sully) was one of the most experienced pilots in the world. He knew to ditch the computer fly manual and quickly perform all the gross weight, air speed & glide-scope calculations QUICKLY to clear the GW bridge. Again without thrust or a computer.

Its pretty safe to say these upcoming new generation of "push-button pilots" are more then likely crash in the same situation. Both the government and commercial pilots are clearly scared to death of it.

I studied to fly but was denied my license for being dyslexic. No computers back then, just charts, pens, roll-pads, gauges and lots of math.
Now almost anybody can fly now as long as you have the $$$. Its like playing a video game. Commercial pilots are bored and no longer required to staying on there toes...not good.

Anonymous said...

"Idlewild is the wrong place for an airport in the jet age"

True--especially these "new and improved" plastic euro-crap jets. Airbus my ass.
Arab Emirates, Singapore Airlines
Qantas & Lufthansa want to bring this giant Airbus A380 double Decker into JFK.
Insurance Company's are not likely to them (high risk) unless all the birds are killed.

These flying elephants carry 525-800 people with 85,000 gallons of fuel. At 1.2 million pounds they need every inch of runway and full power to get off the ground..and it takes them a wile at it

JFK has been doing work on its runways to bring the A320 here for quite a wile, no doubt killing all the birds was in the plan too.

Anonymous said...

It'll be just like when west nile became a problem and they went and killed all the mosquito in those trucks that drove around spraying chemicals that were probably just a huge germ warfare experiment.

There are no mosquito in NYC now.

Quick: someone get Bloomberg the old Iraqi Information Minister's uniform, because really, we're already at that point.

Joe said...

"Comic Ali" would make a better mayor for NYC then this liar sourpuss...

Link
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/

Anonymous said...

"there are no mosquito in nyc now"....

CALL THE N.Y.C. DEPT .OF HEALTH AND TELL THEM THIS ....

Anonymous said...

It'll be just like when west nile became a problem and they went and killed all the mosquito in those trucks that drove around spraying chemicals that were probably just a huge germ warfare experiment.

There are no mosquito in NYC now.


Where should I send your tinfoil hat, Sir?

There are plenty of mosquitos left in NYC.

Queens Crapper said...

Pretty sure the commenter was being facetious.