BIRD-DOGGING THE BASE
Charleston base tests collies as low-tech answer to wildlife problem

The State, August 2003
By CHUCK CRUMBO
Staff Writer,

“We want to push the birds to somewhere where they’re safe and we’re safe.”    Lt. Col. A.J. MacMillan

NORTH CHARLESTON — Kim nervously trotted back and forth near the flight line at Charleston Air Force Base.

When the border collie’s handler raised her arms and pointed forward, the dog took off.

Keeping her head low and not uttering a bark, Kim ran up to a small flock of cattle egrets and startled them. She repeatedly crisscrossed and circled the grassy area until the last bird flew away.

Such is a day’s work for Kim and her partner, Coal, two border collies that the base is using to cut down on the run-ins between aircraft and birds.

Officials believe the dogs could be an important tool in preventing aircraft from hitting wildlife, collisions that have killed two dozen airmen and cost the U.S. Air Force more than $615 million in damaged and destroyed airplanes since 1985.

“If you hit one of those,” said safety officer Maj. Steve Bruce, pointing to a turkey vulture circling above the airfield, “you’re going to have a bad day.”

Birds and airplanes have been at odds ever since the Wright brothers.

The first reported bird strike happened in 1905, when Wilbur Wright’s biplane collided with a flock he was chasing over a Dayton, Ohio, field. The site later became Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

Birds also have caused the crashes of jet fighters and bombers. The deadliest Air Force crash blamed on birds happened in 1995, when geese were sucked into the engine of an AWACS radar plane. The plane crashed 43 seconds after takeoff from an Alaska airfield, killing 24 crewmen.

It doesn’t seem like a bird, even a pelican or sea gull, would present much of a threat to a jet — especially the hulking C-17 transport planes based at Charleston.

But a bird can be a lethal missile when it’s struck by a C-17 flying at 500 mph or sucked into an engine, denting or breaking the blades of the finely balanced turbofans that spin several thousand revolutions per minute.

That means it’s crucial to the air crews’ safety to control the bird population along the flight line, said Lt. Col. A.J. MacMillan, a pilot and safety chief for Charleston’s 437th Airlift Wing, which flies C-17 transports.

Although statistics measuring the effectiveness of Charleston’s border collies are being compiled, Bruce, an Irmo native, said it appears the canines are helping curb the bird problem.

‘NEUROTIC’ COLLIES A PERFECT FIT

Bruce said there are three levels of bird conditions — low, moderate and extreme. When conditions are moderate, flying operations are restricted, Bruce said. When conditions are extreme, the airfield is closed.

The number of times when bird conditions were “moderate” or “extreme” at Charleston have been cut 85 percent since the dogs have been used, he said.

“The birds see the dogs as predators,” MacMillan said. “After a predator is in the area for a period of time, birds tend to avoid that area.”

Border collies are perfect for the job because their obsessive-compulsive nature makes them good workers, said Rebecca Ryan, owner of Flyaway Farm and Kennels. The Bolivia, N.C., firm provides the dogs and handlers for the bird patrols.

“They’re so neurotic. They have to have a job to do,” Ryan said.

Also, border collies aren’t barkers like shelties, another herding breed. That allows Kim, a 5-year-old, and her partner, 3-year-old Coal, to sneak up on a flock like a fox or coyote. Unlike those animals, however, the dogs don’t kill the birds, they just scare them off.

Border collies also are being used at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., which just concluded a year-long pilot program with the dogs to control birds and deer, reported good results.

Kim and Coal live with their handler, Jennifer Morse, and routinely patrol the base. They’re also on call 24 hours a day if a bird problem crops up.

Another border collie is assigned full-time to the North Auxiliary Field in Orangeburg County. Crews from Charleston AFB use the 2,300-acre facility for training.

MAKING BIRDS, PLANES SAFE

The Charleston base is paying the kennel $180,000 this year for the use of the dogs, a spokesman said.

The dogs are not the “silver bullet” in controlling bird populations around the 3,500-acre Charleston airfield, authorities said.

Other methods, from flares to sirens, also may be used. Also, the Air Force is learning how the environment affects bird populations and how maintenance of the airfield can figure into keeping fowl away.

For example, clearing ditches of weeds reduces breeding areas for insects that the birds like to feed on. And cutting down trees eliminates places for the birds to roost.

“Everything that we do needs to be environmentally friendly and animal friendly,” MacMillan said. “We want to push the birds to somewhere where they’re safe and we’re safe.”

Reach Crumbo at (803) 771-8503 or ccrumbo@thestate.com.

Back to the News main page...