Gulls Face ‘Lethal Control’ Program

Opponents of a federal “lethal control” program of shotgunning gulls near the Richland Airport say cleaning up nearby dumps is a better solution.

Federal agents shot 377 gulls last year to prevent potentially fatal accidents caused by birds colliding with planes taking off and landing at the airport. The gulls apparently are attracted to a landfill and a Lamb-Weston potato processing plant near the airport.

“Bird-aircraft strikes are a serious problem, and we could have that situation with the Richland Airport with Lamb-Weston and the dump down the road,” said Tom Hallstead, district superintendent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal damage control program in Yakima.

The airport, city and Lamb-Weston split the $6,000 annual costs of the three-year effort.

Jerry Turnbaugh, Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society president, thinks there is a better way.

“This sort of thing goes on all the time. It’s the result of an imbalance between environmental needs and commercial interests,” he said. “Maybe if we’d clean up attractive nuisances, we wouldn’t attract the birds.”

Shotgun-toting USDA workers and pickup loads of dead birds don’t address the problem, said Roland Haney, who owns a motel near the airport.

“It looked like they wanted to kill every bird out of the area. I don’t mind them shooting a few birds, but what are they doing to keep from attracting them in the first place?” Haney asked. “They should keep garbage at Lamb-Weston covered up.”