The most commonly used CMs reported

The most commonly used CMs reported were maintaining long
grass, noise harassment, removing shrubs, brush and other diverse
habitat, sharp shooting, and erecting non electric fencing. Some
CMs continue to be used year after year, while others are a onetime
effort entailing only annual checks or maintenance. Of the most
commonly used CMs reported in the survey, maintaining long
grass, noise harassment and sharp shooting require repetition.
Removing diverse habitat and erecting non electric fencing are
onetime efforts. However, as one respondent from a national
airport noted ‘‘Wildlife control is an ongoing problem and conditions
have to be continually monitored and your program has to be
changed to adapt to these changes. There is not a single answer to
wildlife control. Each site is different and each individual site
changes from year to year’’.
Airport environments usually contain large grassed areas, and
while functional and easy to maintain, Transport Canada (2004)
states that ‘‘grass is likely the dominant bird-attracting feature at
airports.’’Our findings showa discrepancy between responses totwo
separate questions about grass maintenance. The first asked ‘‘Has
your airport maintained long grass?’’ Of 35 responses, over two-
thirds of responses were yes. In contrast, in reply to the second
question, ‘‘Does your airport carry out any specific grass mowing
practices intended to discourage animal or bird use of grassed
areas?’’ of 28 responses, only less than 20% responded that they left
their grass long, primarily to discourage gulls and geese. Based on our
responses, the CM with the combination of 19 users and a high
success ranking was removing shrubs, brush and other diverse
habitat.Maintaining long grass and noise harassment, although used
by more respondents, 23 and 22 respectively, had lower success
rankings than removing diverse habitat. When airports were asked
to state themethodbywhich theyassessed theoutcomesof theirCM,
anecdotal methods such as reports from staff and past experience
were used more often than referring to a strike reporting system.