Potential For Bird Strikes Too Great

The Federal Aviation Administration says it is time to put a stop to a decades-old practice of farmers being allowed to grow crops on Outagamie Airport grounds in Appleton, WI. 

The FAA is concerned more than crops are being grown. It's not the actual farming that's the issue, it's what those crops attract -- namely birds, according to Green Bay's WBAY-2. Bird strikes can be a potential problem.

Not everyone sees the logic in banning farming.

"I don't think that farming is the total problem," farmer Randy Mueller said. "I don't think that's why the animals and the birds are in there."

"It's a natural habitat. They're migrating, flying back and forth. Like any birds, they fly a certain direction every year, they fly north and south. That's the way they're going to go," he said.

But, that argument isn't good enough, according to County Supervisor Wayne Defferding.

"I don't buy that if there is a bird strike where there is injury or death to human life, I don't think people are going to ask where the bird took off from, I think they're going to assume it took off from the airport property and they will sue the airport," he said.

There's just too much at stake, Defferding said, to take the chance of a goose taking out an aircraft.

The FAA's concerns have caught the attention of the Outagamie County Board and a vote on the matter is set for Tuesday.

"My thought is, we don't have much of a choice," Defferding said.

FMI: www.atwairport.com