Starling control takes flight
by JOHN MOORHOUSE
Penticton Herald,
December 14, 2007
Proponents of a starling control program are optimistic plans to expand the bird trapping operation will take flight in 2008.
Representatives of the B.C. Fruit Growers‘ Association, the B.C. Grapegrowers‘ Association, provincial cherry growers and other agricultural groups are asking the Okanagan‘s three regional districts to contribute $25,000 each towards the $125,000 cost of the program.
But unlike the situation a year ago, when the North Okanagan Regional District rejected the funding proposal, Valley-wide support now seems secure. Growers will also contribute $25,000 and a federal-provincial government agricultural environment fund will chip in an equal amount.
Glen Lucas, the BCFGA‘s general manager, told Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen directors Thursday starlings cause almost $3.5 million a year in damage to B.C. produce, including $840,000 in direct losses to growers. It‘s estimated two per cent of B.C.‘s grape crop and one per cent of the cherry crop is lost to the birds.
The program aims at doubling the number of birds euthanized to 100,000 this year. The trapping season normally runs only through the fall and winter when the birds don‘t have crops to feed on.
“We‘re leading the world in this program,” Lucas said. “We‘ve had great success in the Similkameen.”
A large framed net is hung over apples or other bait and dropped on the birds, which are then herded into an enclosed box and killed with carbon dioxide. Any non-target species are released. The dead birds are frozen and used for food at such raptor-oriented facilities as the South Okanagan Rehabilitation Centre for Owls.
Lucas emphasized no non-target species are killed, since the trapper can release those birds prior to euthanization.
“Conservationists support conservation of wildlife, not foreign invasive pests,” he said.
The European starling was introduced to North America in 1890 and 1891 when 100 of the birds were released in New York City‘s Central Park by an industrialist who wished to introduce all the birds mentioned in works by William Shakespeare to this continent. The birds have since spread across the U.S, Canada and Mexico, ravaging agricultural crops and displacing native bird species.
Greg Norton of the B.C. Cherry Growers Association said funding for a three-year pilot program expired last year, but enough money was scraped together to continue the program for 2006-07.
“We think we can be successful,” he said. “We can have an impact.”
However, he noted without the North Okanagan‘s participation, starlings attracted by cattle feedlots in the region, simply fly south and fill the void elsewhere in the valley.
Norton said letters of intent to support the program have already been received from municipal councils throughout the North Okanagan and he‘s confident budget approval will be received.
RDOS directors voted unanimously to refer the Starling Control Committee‘s request to their 2008 budget deliberations.
