The airport professional's source for airport industry news, articles, events, and careers.
Issue link: http://airportbusiness.epubxp.com/i/813534
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT April 2017 airportbusiness 19 ardous ruts, humps, or other surface variations. In fact, a number of other airports in the FAA Southern Region have difficulty meeting the regulations due to holes caused by burrowing of gopher tortoises. Gopher tortoises are listed as a threatened species in Florida, and mitiga- tion efforts are heavily regulated, expensive and time-consuming. "Artificial turf can be used as part of long- term preventative wildlife control strategies, rather than reactive measures to capture and relocate," said Daniel McSwain, general man- ager of AvTurf. Aside from tortoises, encounters with wild- life, particularly birds, are a major concern in both the civil aviation and military environments around the world. Globally, wildlife strikes have killed more than 255 people and destroyed over 243 aircraft. This is due to the increase in bird population and the increase in aircraft, espe- cially the quieter, turbofan-powered aircraft. Strikes increased from 1,851 in 1990 to 11,315 in 2013 with birds involved in 97 percent of those reported. Strikes have decreased over recent time due to wildlife management techniques and practices such as alternative habitat strat- egies which reduce attraction to airports. One of these techniques is the use of artificial turf. Approximately 60 percent of bird strike encounters occur during landing, thus efforts have been directed to ensure wildlife control on the airfield. Synthetic aviation turf provides a non-lethal solution to mitigate wildlife and reduce the potential for bird strikes by remov - ing food, water, or shelter near the runways. Eliminating mowing operations also signifi- cantly reduces the presence of specific birds such as cattle egrets, which accumulate in large numbers during such operations. ARTIFICIAL TURF SAFETY SOLUTION Artificial turf can also help curb critical airfield safety issues such as foreign object debris (FOD), erosion and more, while providing a clean, green, and low maintenance surface area. www.aviationpros.com/10131811 Tests for jet blast, load bearing capacity, drainage characteristics, skid resistance, flammability, durability and more are all confirmed by third-party reports. Act Global AvTurf Inc.