School’s not for the birds

Spokane may boast that it’s near nature, but pigeons in the building are a little too close – even at a school named for the world’s most famous birdwatcher.

The Spokane school district has spent more than $130,000 this summer on anti-pigeon projects at four schools, including Audubon Elementary. The others are Woodridge, Mullan Road and Garfield elementaries.

They are the last of 16 Spokane schools built in the late 1970s and early ’80s that had pigeon infestations. All have been modified in recent years to keep the birds out of ventilation systems.

The pigeons created a health issue, said Kevin Morrison, Spokane Public Schools technical specialist for facilities and planning. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says accumulations of pigeon poop can cause diseases with scary names like histoplasmosis and psittacosis.

“As any building manager of large facilities will tell you, pigeons are a problem that keeps coming back,” and in bigger numbers every year, Morrison said.

The work was done with money from a $165 million facilities improvement bond passed by voters in 2003. The district will go to voters again next spring with another facilities bond issue as part of a 25-year plan for building maintenance.

What would John James Audubon say about giving pigeons the boot at his namesake school? A possible hint: Though he painted plates of nearly 500 birds, he apparently never bothered with the common rock pigeon, which was imported into Colonial America and since has become an urban creature. But the 19th-century naturalist might be pleased that the Spokane school has an eagle as its mascot. That’s a bird he took the time to paint.