HomeMy WebLinkAboutM_USDA Letter_Airport Tree Removal_210930_v1.pdf United States Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Safeguarding American Agriculture
United States
Department of
Agriculture
Marketing and
Regulatory
Programs
Animal and
Plant Health
Inspection
Service
Wildlife
Services
Washington/Alaska
State Office
720 O’Leary St. NW
Olympia, WA 98502
(360) 753-9884
fax: (360) 753-9466
Renton Municipal Airport 3/17/21
Globally, wildlife strikes have killed more than 282 people and destroyed over 263
aircraft from 1988-2018. Of those aircraft destroyed, 64 percent occurred at GA
airports. The annual cost of wildlife strikes to the USA civil aviation industry is
an estimated $92 million dollars in direct and other monetary losses, however
actual losses are likely 2 or more times higher (Annual Report: Wildlife Strikes to
Civil Aircraft in the United States (1990-2017); this is due to the difficulty in
obtaining actual incurred losses from aircraft operators based on parts and labor
costs, aircraft delays and downtime, passenger re-accommodations, etc.
Understanding the risks to aviation safety and how to properly manage those risks
is a critical component to a comprehensive wildlife hazard mitigation program at
any airport.
After discussions with airport managers regarding areas around the airport which
are owned by the City of Renton, USDA Wildlife Services (WS) recommends the
trees located in the parcel adjacent to the Will Rogers Wiley Post Memorial
Seaplane Base be removed. These trees are specifically identified in the
accompanying attachments. WS identified these trees as perching locations for
Bald eagles and Ospreys, which rank 6th and 9th respectively on the Federal
Aviation Administration’s (FAA) hazardous species composite ranking (FAA A/C
150-3200-38). USDA WS recommends that the proposed re-vegetation efforts
designed to replace the lost biomass of the trees planned for removal be rejected.
By replacing these trees, the airport may be creating favorable perching, roosting,
and nesting habitat for bird species hazardous to aviation safety immediately
adjacent to the runway. This is counterproductive to wildlife hazard mitigation
efforts performed by airport personnel and USDA WS Biologists, which are aimed
at increasing safety to aviation and wildlife.
Scott Gilbert
Wildlife Biologist
USDA Wildlife Services
253-285-6165
Scott.M.Gilbert@usda.gov