Arkansas Online

Bentonville airport gone to dogs for solution to its goose problem

MIKE JONES

BENTONVILLE — It took a “Maverick” to drive geese away from the municipal airport.

The male border collie began to harass the pesky intruders in April 2020. He now rules the roost.

“They always try to come back,” handler Robin Fields said of the geese. “I see geese fly over the airport, but they avoid it. The geese are still there, but they are not spending much time at the airport.”

The city bought Maverick from Flyaway Geese, a North Carolina company that trains border collies to disperse geese and other birds.

The dogs are used at airports, city parks, golf courses and military bases, company owner Rebecca Gibson said. Flyaway Geese has sold more than 700 dogs over the past 24 years, she said. The Flyaway Geese website says the business can help manage geese, pigeons, wading birds, starlings, seagulls, ducks, cormorants and coot.

The name “Maverick” was selected from more than 300 entries the city received through Facebook and email in March, said Debbie Griffin, city director of administration. More than 60 respondents submitted the name Maverick, one of 103 names suggested, she said.

Maverick is 2 years and 4 months old, Fields said.

The airport had a geese problem for a number of years before Maverick arrived. The birds were a safety hazard for planes. The geese became a concern when they wandered near the runway or flew near planes taking off or landing, Dennis Birge, city transportation engineer, has said.

The Federal Aviation Administration lists only two bird strikes at the Bentonville airport — one in 2019 and one in 2013. The 2019 incident involved an “unknown bird” and the one in 2013 was listed as “unknown bird-medium.”

About 183,296 wildlife strikes to civil aircraft were reported in the United States and for U.S.-registered aircraft in foreign countries from 19902016, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Airport Wildlife Hazards Program report published in June 2018.

The biggest concerns at the Bentonville airport include potential strikes on the nose, propeller or engine of an aircraft, mostly upon landing. Other areas a bird might strike include

the tail and flaps, said Chip Gibbons with Summit Aviation, the airport’s fixed-based operator.

Aircraft components most commonly reported as struck by birds from 1990 to 2020 were the nose/radome, windshield, wing/rotor, engine and fuselage. Aircraft engines were the component most frequently reported as being damaged by bird strikes — 26% of all damaged components, according to the FAA.

Richard Ham, chairman of the Bentonville Airport Advisory Board, said there were times in the past when there would be 30 to 40 geese in the water or on land at the airport. Those numbers have shriveled to three to four now, he said.

“It’s not a hospitable place for them to be. The dog is doing a great job. Every one we get out of there reduces the chance of a strike,” Ham said.

What’s left of Maverick’s target-rich environment is now made up starlings, crows and pigeons. The starlings, sometimes in groups of as many as 300, gather on the short grass near the airport runway, Fields said.

Maverick will quickly wade into the small birds and send them flying, but Fields said the dog prefers to chase off geese. The geese see the dog as a natural predator, Ham said.

Resident geese still try to make their way back to the airport. These geese were born in the area and know it as home, Fields said.

A few geese and other birds usually need to be moved away from the airport after Maverick has been gone for a few days. Fields and Maverick work Monday through Friday.

BORN TO RUN (OFF GEESE)

Maverick is the offspring of Greg, the dog that worked with Fields at the Bentonville airport before Maverick arrived. Working with Greg helped prepare him for dealing with the younger dog, he said.

“Greg was a well-experienced dog,” Fields said. “Anyone could have taken him and done the job. He is what I call a push-button dog. Greg was more seasoned, and Maverick wants to just go, go go.”

Gibson said she is not surprised by Maverick’s success. It’s in his DNA, she said.

“That line he comes from, they don’t know anything other than goose control,” she said. “They are in the womb chasing geese.”

Fields and Maverick also patrol the city parks a few times a week to run away geese. Geese were a problem at Memorial Park, landing on the ball fields and using a pond of water on the park’s east side. Geese also liked to gather at the retention ponds near the Bentonville Community Center and Citizens Park. Like the airport, those areas are now pretty much no-geese zones.

“My basic observation is it works,” David Wright, parks and recreation director, said about using a goose-chasing dog. “The geese know the dog exists. It’s a maintenance issue now.”

The goal is to drive the geese away and not kill them. Using a border collie is the humane way to manage the geese, Gibson said.

City officials had used a variety of methods to deter the geese with varying degrees of success, including decoys and harassing them with noise, officials said. Falconry was examined, but was cost-prohibitive. Officials discussed applying for a state permit to kill the geese, but dropped the idea.

November through February there is an uptick in geese and other birds at the airport, said Will Gunselman, Summit manager at Thaden Field, which the airport is also named.

‘BEST BARGAIN EVER’

The border collie cost about $7,000. The 2020 city budget showed a salary of $45,000 for the dog handler. The position was listed under the Police Department as administrative technician (goose dog handler/part-time bailiff).

Ham called this expenditure “the best bargain ever.” He noted damage to an aircraft caused by a bird strike could cost thousands of dollars and even loss of life.

“If you avoid one incident, it would pay for itself many times over,” he said.

Ham said the city should be able to use the dog for seven to nine years before Maverick’s skills begin to wane.

Fields works as a bailiff in Bentonville District Court on Tuesday mornings and all day Wednesdays. He goes to the airport with Maverick before he begins his shifts those days to make sure all is quiet.

“Maverick and his handler Robin have been great to have around,” Gunselman said. “They are extremely proactive, and I’ve personally seen a big difference in how many less birds are around the field. Pilots on the field have mentioned a large decrease in bird activity as well.”

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2021-10-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/282153589487334

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