The Houston City Council unanimously approved funding for a study to assess the hazards of wildlife at both William P. Hobby (HOU) and Ellington Airports (EFD).

The Houston Airport System (HAS) sought the study as a proactive measure with more than a year of preparation prior to Council action on February 11th.

Fortunately, there were no major incidents at any of Houston’s Airports that would have prompted mandatory action for a study.

“The assessment will take approximately twelve months and will include a wildlife biologist who will be on site to determine the potential hazards, migration patterns and strategies to disperse the wildlife,” says Steve Runge, airport superintendent of operations at Ellington Airport.

With the close proximity of Ellington and Hobby and the similar migration routes of birds, the study was cost effective to include both airports, which means it costs the same to conduct the study at one airport as it would at two airports.

“We have noticed more wildlife near Ellington.  Not just birds, but wild boars, deer and other animals,” adds Runge. "The United States Department of Agriculture is the recommended agency to do this type of work, so for the past 12 months we have been working with them to get this contract ready to go.”

HAS maintains comprehensive procedures to cut down on potential dangerous situations with wildlife.

"If one of the employees in airport operations would observe a large gathering of birds, then we would take proactive measures,” says Tom Bartlett, Deputy Director of HAS operations. “We would first set off a loud sound with a vehicle horn or the siren. As an added measure, we would use a shotgun with a cracker shell. It's more or less like fireworks that we can fire up about 200 feet and then it kind of explodes or has a crackling sound."

With quite a bit of construction near Ellington, many of the animals don’t have places to go. It’s a big wide open field so they migrate to Ellington.

Airport officials are getting a handle on the species and what they can do to make the area less attractive to birds and other animals.