HABRI Central

Large commercial airports, also known as Part 139 airports, are required by federal regulation to monitor and control wildlife activity. Due to the regulatory nature of 14 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Part 139.337, and the size and scope of these airports, there is sufficient funding to support wildlife management. However, in the United States, there are an additional 19,000 landing facilities, of which 4,600 are known as public use, general aviation airports. These general aviation airports are not bound by any regulation to mitigate wildlife hazards at their facilities; however, at least 33.9% of these airports have known wildlife hazards. Due to their small and often non-commercial nature, general aviation airports have limited operational budgets and often must solve wildlife hazards with existing personnel. Because these personnel are often not trained in wildlife management techniques, they may be unaware of suitable options for controlling wildlife damage. Therefore, we reviewed existing wildlife damage management techniques that are commonly used at Part 139 airports and surveyed airport wildlife damage management professionals to assess the techniques for use at general aviation airports based on the initial costs of implementation; the amount of training required to implement the techniques; perpetual costs; and the amount of man hours per week required to implement the technique. All techniques were scored on a 5-point scale for each category, resulting in a composite score. This review may serve as a guide in the decision making process for general aviation airport managers when considering wildlife management at their airports.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Air travel
2. Animal roles
3. Hazards
4. Human-animal interactions
5. open access
6. Wild animals