Bird-control battle hits a wall at Canadian border
By The Associated Press
BELLINGHAM — As farmers resume a program
to control flocks of pesky starlings, the
program's director wishes neighbors across the
border would join the effort.
The start of nesting season marks the first
efforts of the year to trap and poison starlings,
which eat berry crops and dairy feed while
making potentially infectious messes.
Henry Bierlink, who runs Whatcom County's program, told The Bellingham Herald it
might be more successful if Canadian farmers did "more than just scare their
birds
down here" with propane cannons.
The loud blasts — more than once a minute using gas explosions — scare away
birds
but anger neighbors. Bierlink believes they also drive the birds south over the
border.
David Townsend, spokesman for the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and
Fisheries, said there is no government-organized control program under way and
no
plan to start one.
Starlings, native to Europe, first showed up on the East Coast in the late 19th
century
and spread west. Their aggressive feeding habits and monopolization of cavity
nesting
sites have hurt native birds such as the purple martin.
In Whatcom County last year, about 45,000 starlings were destroyed as part of
an 8
year-old program overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Ref.
Seattle Times
