North Auxiliary Field (NAF)
is located in the midlands region of South Carolina. The primary concern at NAF is white tailed deer. The swampy woodland location provides the
perfect habitat for deer and there is a significant deer population
living on and around the airfield increasing the risk of incursion
between deer and aircraft. We have implemented an extensive
deer control program including:
u
use of border
collies specially trained to chase deer
u
patrols with
border collies to mark territories to deter deer presence
u
passive deer
deterrents
u
habitat
modification recommendations: regular mowing, clearing of brush and
other areas where deer were bedding down
u
recommended
changes to the existing hunting program to promote long term deer
management
u
targeted
depredation of does by Flyaway Farm and Kennels' personnel to augment
the hunting program and manage population size
Flyaway
Farm and Kennels provides a complete wildlife control package for
both
Charleston AFB facilities
with wildlife biologists on staff working with professionally
trained dogs. The Charleston BASH Program Manager,
Lucas Oligschlaeger, has a master’s degree in wildlife biology from
Louisiana State University where he studied mammalian predation and
impacts on waterfowl nesting. He has spent time on staff with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Missouri Department of Conservation,
University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University, Delta Waterfowl
Foundation, and Ducks Unlimited. Our team handles daily bird control
and, in the case of NAF, deer control. The biologists monitor bird
and mammal movement on the airfields, perform daily bird and mammal
counts, assess the animal movement patterns, and harass and trap
wildlife. Flyaway Farm and Kennels’ Chief of BASH
Operations, Dr. Karen Voltura, also performs on-site evaluations of
habitat and makes recommendations of habitat modification to
decrease the wildlife populations on the flight lines. We take a very active role in the BASH program and
allow the flight safety and airfield management personnel to make decisions
with very accurate and current information.
Q We have
provided detailed low-level route analyses to Charleston AFB Flight
Safety Office to help them decrease the risk of a damaging bird
strike on training flights. We flew these low level routes
with
members of the flight safety office and identified high risk areas
based
on land use and habitat type. Combining this information with
bird migration patterns, we were able to set out time periods when
there was a higher risk for a bird strike in specific areas and make
altitude and speed restriction recommendations for these areas.
Q
We also encouraged
utilization of available information from AHAS (Avian Hazard
Advisory System) in pre-flight planning.
Q
We narrowed their
Phase II window to more accurately reflect local high bird
activity conditions, particularly at Charleston.
Q
We have helped them
greatly increase the reporting and species identification of
birdstrikes, allowing us to customize their BASH program to
their needs.
All
of this was incorporated into their BASH plan and by focusing Phase
II restrictions on certain areas for narrower windows of time it
allowed Charleston to increase training time by 45% without
increasing the number of damaging bird strikes.
