Vegetation & Habitat Control
I've been doing a bit of clearing of land at my airport to make way for a new fence. We've had to expand our borders to accommodate those new instrument approach procedures I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Given that the airport is in "the bush", this meant knocking over a few trees to construct the new fence and make the new airside area completely manageable using tractors and mowers. So, we broke out the relatively cute D-6 dozer and set about clearing the new airport boundary and land.
Most of the clearing was carried out on previously cleared land but a bit did involve remanent forest. This clearing required strict permits to ensure that there were no heritage and environmental impacts from the clearing. Assessments were made and the clearing was given the go-ahead.
The new fence and cleared land will go along way to us managing our habitat and reducing our bird strike risk as well as provide a greater firebreak* from surrounding vegetation.
We are pursuing a short-grass policy to reduce the attractiveness of the airside area to insects and rodents, which bring in the raptors. For us, Black Kites are our critical species. They are one of those species that requires a "separate and specific risk treatment plan" by the standards in our wildlife management plan.
* Speaking of which, I really like the story from SFO regarding the use of goats to clear a firebreak in a particularly sensitive area. That is really cool.
Header image: Skitterphoto (via Pexels)
