Politics & Government

Netting Under Bridge Killing Birds, Say Local Environmentalists

Calling on Caltrans to find alternate ways of keeping swallows from nesting under Petaluma Bridge and say the agency's methods have resulted in hundreds of dead birds

 

First it was the eucalyptus trees, cut down in February to make room for the new Petaluma Boulevard South interchange.

Now, Caltrans, the state transportation agency, has managed to anger Petaluma resident once again, by setting up netting under the Petaluma River bridge that is ensnaring and killing birds who typically nest there.

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“The columns of the bridge are a nesting site for cliff swallows and they are extremely determined to get there, in the process getting tangled in the netting,” said Veronica Bowers, director of Native Songbird Care & Conservation, a Sebastopol nonprofit that works to protect local birds.

“There are much safer ways to keep the birds off, either with silicon-based paint or sheaths of Teflon, so that these birds don’t have to get their wings and necks twisted,” Bowers said.

Find out what's happening in Petalumawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Adam Priest, a Caltrans spokesman, said the agency was aware of the issue and working to collect more facts. He declined to elaborate.

Work has not yet started on the Petaluma River Bridge, although Caltrans has been preparing the area over the past several weeks.

Cliff swallows are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, making it illegal to remove them during breeding season without a permit. The workaround for Caltrans is to put up netting, although the agency’s own website acknowledges that this is less than optimal way to deter the birds.

Instead, it suggests that other techniques be explored to minimize injuring the birds.

Estimates of how many birds have been killed by the netting vary. Caltrans says only several dozen have been killed, while Bowers estimates the number in the several hundreds, adding that a dozen new birds are found each day and that netting has been up for almost three weeks.

Bowers said she has spoken with CC Meyers, the contractor who put up the netting, and asked that the netting be removed. She added that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing environmental reports and contracts pertaining to the project site, although it will several days to complete the review process.

There is no way for anyone besides crews to access the netting, so Bowers and other activists are working to document the problem.

“The public needs to let these agencies know that the netting is not the appropriate solution and that there are plenty of other options,” Bowers said. “The fact that they have taken three weeks to just think about the problem is outrageous and frankly a waste of taxpayer money.”


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