Federal Agencies Work to Make Facilities Bird-Friendly

The year before last marked the dawn of a theme-based approach to Council efforts. In 2013, the Council decided that a migratory bird conservation theme would be chosen every three years that Council Staff would rally around to promote within their agencies. Promotion efforts could include developing training, disseminating bird impact management resources, and providing information that helps facilitate and empower agency staff to work toward better practices for birds within the chosen theme. The Council staff will also showcase efforts and progress each agency is making within the theme through vehicles such as the Council website, the Council Newsletter, and the Council Annual Report.

In line with this year's theme of Facilities Management, Council Staff have been diligently working to distribute information within their agencies about ways to reduce impacts to migratory birds at their facilities, and to demonstrate and share the innovative ways they have been succeeding toward this goal.

The Facilities Management resources include easy low- or no-cost measures that staff of federal facilities can employ to minimize bird collision risk at their federal facilities and homes. They also include measures in the procedural and structural realm that facility and landscape managers and developers can employ. In addition, the Council is talking with the General Services Administration (GSA) and other entities with influence over federal building design and operations to inform them of the Council goals and work and engage them in Council activities concerning facilities management. Individual Council agency efforts on the facilities management front will be surveyed and showcased at the end of the year in the Annual Council Report. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at some of the Facilities Management efforts Council Agencies have been working on:

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS): The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has considered facilities management at several office buildings, including the previously leased and now GSA-owned headquarters building in Riverdale, Maryland. An agency-wide email entitled “Things that go BUMP in the Day” was distributed in October 2014 and provided employees with 7 easy steps that they could incorporate into their daily activities at home or the office to save birds. In addition, APHIS is developing a collision study to quantify the number and species of birds that strike the Riverdale building throughout the year. Upon completion, APHIS will make recommendations to the APHIS Administrator and Facility and Conference Services staff regarding the most effective conservation measures that they can implement to prevent bird strikes at this location.

Department of State (DoS): The Department of State has 276 overseas and 10 domestic offices and other functional facilities. While DoS does not manage large tracts of land, they implement operational standards that demonstrate examples of good stewardship of natural resources to host countries and local communities, and serve as a model for improved environmental practices. Although none the DoS operational standards are instituted specifically for birds, they can contribute to their conservation. An example of standards DoS promotes to reduce impacts at facilities is the Guide to Green Embassies: Eco-Diplomacy in Operation, distributed by the DoS Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, which recommends native or adaptive plants in the landscape, and environmentally friendly cleaning and deicing products; promotes tree planting and constructed wetlands on our overseas facilities; and requires shielded parking lot lighting.

Department of Energy (DOE): The following are examples of the types of measures DOE has implemented at their facilities to reduce impacts to birds:

The DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory installed avian collision deterrent film on the windows of the new Energy Systems Integration Facility. The film features either 2-inch white dots in a grid or 2-inch horizontal bars and adheres to the exterior of the windows. No bird collisions have been reported to date.
DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Chief Environmental Planner and grounds keeping specialists conducted tree surveys to determine that no nests were present in trees proposed to be pruned, removed, or otherwise disturbed by nearby activities during the breeding season.
DOE’s Oak Ridge Operations personnel advised facility managers on nest-exclusion devices, materials, and designs aimed at preventing negative human/bird interactions.
To protect raptors, DOE’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve requires perch guards in specifications for wood pole buildings. It developed written procedures regarding interaction with injured birds, marking of active nest locations, and marking equipment “out of service” until chicks have fledged.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): In addition to circulating information on reducing impacts to migratory birds to facilities managers and offices with oversight of facility design and operation, the FAA included a message in the Daily Broadcast e-mail issued to all employees listing simple, low- or no-cost measures that can be adopted at existing facilities, emphasizing measures that also have energy-saving benefits and can help to achieve sustainability goals. The FAA is also updating its Advisory Circular for obstruction lighting, used at night to warn pilots of a tower or other hazard, with revised specifications that will reduce their attraction to migratory birds without compromising safety. Studies suggest that these new lighting configurations could reduce bird fatalities by 70% each year. For more information on FAA's efforts to protect migratory birds, please visit the Office of Airports Wildlife Hazard Mitigation website.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS): The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has begun a building monitoring effort at its headquarters office in Bailey’s Crossroads, VA. USFWS employees and building cleaning, maintenance, and security staff have been invited to volunteer their time to do early morning sweeps of the building grounds in search of injured and dead birds. The USFWS has based their monitoring protocol off the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) protocols, and is tracking their finds through the DC Lights Out database. The USFWS also works closely with the Urban Bird Treaty city programs, which promote and organize bird-friendly practices within cities and city suburbs, including participation in monitoring of buildings and distribution of information about how residents can helps reduce impacts to birds.

In addition, the Migratory Bird Program is reaching across programs to ensure that the USFWS is taking all possible means to reduce bird collisions at its own facilities by working with the National Refuge System to educate refuge staff on the perils of bird-glass collisions. The first step is to produce articles in Refuge Updates and Friends Forward publications to begin spreading the word of simple, low to no cost solutions refuges can employ to reduce bird collisions with refuge buildings.

For conservation measures anyone can implement at their facilities to avoid and minimize impacts to migratory birds, please see the following:

o Building, Glass and LightingMeasures