April 24, 2012: A Canada goose struck by a JetBlue plane that made an emergency landing at the Westchester County Airport in Purchase, N.Y. (AP/The Journal News)
Problems from Bird Strikes
January, 2009: Capt. Chesley Sullenberger ditches Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after colliding with a flock of geese following takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York.
April 24 , 2012: A JetBlue plane bound for West Palm Beach, Fla., makes an emergency landing at Westchester Coumty Airport north of New York City after a bird strike on the windshield of the aircraft.
Unfortunately the knee-jerk reaction to this sort of issue is to…yes, to kill more birds. There are more sensible, cost effective, and humane solutions.
Airborne bird-detecting radar systems and research into avian perception and aircraft illumination are a start, but on the ground, eradication (gassing and shooting) are often advocated, as in this recent Los Angeles Times article.
The Solution to Birdstrikes
FlightTurf™ is a turfgrass technology I developed as a extension of my work with Native Return, a company which I founded to convince others to share their land with wildlife. In applications where the mutual well-being of both wildlife and human populations are at risk, it is more appropriate to plant vegetative cover unattractive to wildlife so they are deterred from unsafe areas.
New installation of FlightTurf™
How is this done? I developed this product by completely upending the building blocks of conservation and my work which advocates for native species. It was of utmost importance to think outside the box, and my understanding of the ecology of habitats and the evolution of each species in it gave me the information needed to design menus which stand outside the foodchain, do not attract local wildlife, and discourage grazing by its biological unsuitability. My committment to habitat and wildlife continues in my work converting traditional lawns to native-species meadows.
FlightTurf™ reduces maintenance
My patent-pending FlightTurf™ does not contain invasive grass species, cuts mowing and maintenance costs because it requires just one mow per year, and is no threat to habitats beyond the scope of its use. This lowers equipment emissions, minimizes runway closures, keeping the balance in favor of ecology and efficiency.
This turf can be used in many applications, highway roadside swaths where deer graze, state, county and city parks where flock fecal matter is a health issue, schools, colleges, commercial and industrial parks. In all cases, not only are wildlife discouraged, but property maintenance costs are reduced.
Learn more about the many benefits of my “grass roots” turf conversion installations and about my work maintaining a healthy balance between wild and human populations .
About Christina Kobland
I have very much enjoyed the posts on the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog since I subscribed several months ago. I look forward to them each morning. As a garden designer who’s interested in creating wildlife friendly gardens with lots of native plants, your contributors have given me much inspiration and food for thought. It is a rare day that I don’t find something useful, interesting or uplifting in its articles.
Today’s post, however, seemed rather commercial and self-promoting. Although I understand the need for such products, and I’m glad that they’re being developed, I hope that this site will not become an advertising outlet as so many others have. I joined several groups on Facebook thinking to interact with other like-minded individuals only to discover that most of the participants were just promoting their own products or services. I hope that won’t happen here.
Thanks for listening, and thank you again for all the good work.
Edward, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us. We began this site so that we could encourage conversation, and I’d very much like to have the conversation about whether promoting something that has no habitat value but may save bird’s lives (and ours) is beneficial. I think that conversation would be valuable.
Carole Sevilla Brown recently posted..Why Focus on Ecosystem Gardening When There is So Much Wrong in the World?
I realize this topic could be a stretch for the site, but I also wanted to encourage others to think outside the box to find solutions to protect our wildlife when it is determined they interfere with our safety. The first inclination is often to just kill them. There are other solutions available. Our world, as it shrinks in habitat, and as it grows in human population, is struggling. We need creative solutions. Forgive me for the commercial aspect of my post.
I too thank you Edward for your concern and for being open about it. I think it is extremely valuable to share this important issue of avian deaths due to aviation and to discuss possible ways to solve these tragic encounters. Our technology kills millions of birds each year and some take human life at the same time. If Christina’s ‘turf’ can help save wildlife and humans at the same time, what better place to have the dialogue than here, where we clearly all care so much about birds and wildlife of all kinds. I do not know enough about the product as yet, but believe that anything which will not harm the environment (such as poisons, invasive plants and killing does) and may save wildlife is worthy of discussion.
Carol Duke recently posted..Sweeping Spring Landscape ~ Leafy and Feathery Flames of Light
Thank you for writing, Carol. As I have said many times, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be promoting habitat that discourages wildlife. When I realized airports manage the wildlife attracted to the open grassy spaces of airfields by killing them, I was determined to find an alternate vegetative cover wildlife would avoid. FlightTurf not only increases safety but has many environmental advantages — lower emissions, greater stormwater infiltration, no fertilization or watering requirement. Those of us who love and care about wildlife have to get very creative to support our complex and often-times conflicting needs.
I live in an area with many ponds and one where you can’t fire a gun, yet somebody shot all the Canada geese in the area including those with goslings and left my husband and I to take the dead bodies out of the ones that were killed on our pond.
We make habitat that wildlife like geese want..short turf and water and then we are upset when they take advantage of it. If I could get my neighbors to use something like this or do what we do which is leave the grass long which the geese don’t like, it would save the bloody mess we saw. I don’t see a problem with this post..it may save wildlife and humans if it is used near airports…Michelle
Thank you, Michelle, for your feedback. I was hoping others would see it as you do…environmentally safe solutions that are wildlife-friendly. My heart aches every time I see anything killed, so I can only imagine what you are experiencing.
FlightTurf has many applications. I developed it for airfields, but it can be used elsewhere. Hopefully a client with a pond will try it. I am always learning.
By the way, some seem to be confused about whether my turfgrass is approved. It does meet Federal Aviation Administration specifications and is in use in many airports, as well as parks, utility rights of way, around maintenance buildings and substations, and along roadways.
Christina it was clear that your development of this product took you outside the box…I was fascinated by the many beneficial aspects of this turf and how it could actually save lives on both sides (human and birds). I would love to see others use it and a wonderful discussion here would help you in your development…this is the perfect place to have that discussion…knowing Michelle’s issue with her pond, she already sees a benefit…I am glad to see this wonderful post…I didn’t read it as commercial but encouraging people to contact you to learn more about it if they think it could help!
Donna@ Gardens Eye View recently posted..Simply The Best-April
Donna, I appreciate your kind words. I find it is a bit of a dance — trying to succeed in business, not sound too pushy, and also convince others to appreciate and look after wildlife. If I can’t get the word out about my offerings, I can’t achieve my goals, so I do the best I can. Comments like yours keep me smiling.
I just want everyone to know that my first love is our natural world and the creatures we share it with, and my personal goal is to do everything I can to help. Aside from my continuing research on FlightTurf, I have other ideas I am dying to work on.
At last year’s military air show at Andrews AFB, MD, I learned of these folks with the Smithsonian who study bird strikes. This web page has links to other sites as well. The Smithsonian URL is linked to my name. Here it is as well:
http://www.mnh.si.edu/highlight/feathers/
Carla, Thanks for sharing the link. Here is more information on wildlife and airports: http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/wildlife/default.aspx
Christina Kobland recently posted..Meadow Lawns featured at Natural Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Carla,
Thanks for posting the link. Here’s another one of interest about the topic: http://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife/
Christina Kobland recently posted..Meadow Lawns featured at Natural Plants and Wildlife Gardens