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It appears the Longmont airport prairie dogs have brought the local FoxNews reporters here in light of the news that because the prairie dogs are creating a hazard, the city may lose federal funding. I also received word that people in Florida saw the TV coverage and are now talking about our airport/prairie dog dilemma.
Councilmember Karen Benker (who's district Ward contains the airport) and Councilmember Sean McCoy (who is the city council liasion for the Airport Advisory Board)...are you listening? Our city can not afford to lose thousands, possibly millions in funding for an airport that generates millions in tax revenue for Longmont.
Both myself and my husband (who is the Denver Aviation Examiner) are longtime aviation enthusiasts and advocates who have flown out of Vance Brand Airport in Longmont many times and pay close attention to anything that affects our local airport and contrary to naysayers, do not hate prairie dogs.
An example of the types of delays that have occured over the prairie dog issue in Longmont occured recently when Councilmember Benker, requested at the last city council meeting of May 12th to delay the rewrite of the city's Wildlife Management Plan until August so as to use more city staff and time to go back out and recount the ever growing population of prairie dogs, to look into whether all of the open space property the city has purchased can be used for prairie dog "relocation" and whether the city should begin fining property owners who don't "protect" the prairie dogs when developing land that prairie dogs exist on.
According to a previous speaker at a city council meeting, Longmont is the only airport to try to do prairie dog "containment" and from what I've seen...it's been ineffective, is growing into an even bigger problem and becoming very expensive. Something tells me that the FAA won't wait that long while the city continually attempts to throw money at ineffective and temporary solutions like these that are ongoing.
I was told by a wildlife biologist friend that the area is appealing to them and if they are removed, more will return if the area isn't made to look less appealing. Will a "visual fence" that cost the city about 14K (on this attempt) do that and will it be enough for the FAA to agree that the city is in compliance with federal funding regulations? I think the city has done more than enough, and now needs to look at more permanent solutions that other city airports have effecitvely used.
This is an ongoing story, and both the Denver Aviation Examiner and myself will be updating this story as developments occur. And they WILL occur if more effective methods are not put in place.
Click the below links to read more related background on this important issue:
- 5/22 Update: Longmont feels the heat, starts killing prairie dogs
- Longmont's prairie dog solution a bad joke (is this what they mean by "visual" containment?)
- Longmont's prairie dog situation makes national news
- Surprise: Airplanes and Wildlife don't mix well
- For city, airport safety falls somewhere behind prairie dogs
- Prairie dogs are running the airport
- Not sure fencing prairie dogs is the best option
- City to fence, fumigate prairie dogs
- Residents debate fate of airport prairie dogs (read the comments from wildlife biologist Kendra Cross of the U.S. Department of Agriculture about the danger to aircraft caused by prairie dogs)
- Prairie dogs could cost Vance Brand Airport
- Boulder County's report on prairie dog management (in support of prairie dog education, read about containment fencing on page 42, as apparently a 'visual' barrier is one method that is supposed to deter the prairie dogs. But as the Denver Aviation Examiner noted in his latest slideshow article coverage, it doesn't appear to be visually effective and many "dogs" are currently outside the area of "visual containment" and are at risk of being exterminated/ Wasn't the plan to build a "physical" barrier versus a "visual" one)
- The City of Longmont is trying to revise it's wildlife managment plan, click HERE to see the available online 2004 version. This version was also amended in 2006.
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