Week of Mar. 16, 2009

Transportation operations adapt for local wildlife

Throughout King County, much work has been done over the past few decades to protect and enhance salmon habitat. But, fish aren’t the only species getting personalized attention. That same type of research and planning is used by the King County Department of Transportation to operate its services and build projects alongside the native territory of all sorts of wildlife.

The Road Services Division is exploring better ways to separate deer travel from human traffic on county roads.

Whether it’s bobcats, beavers, or blue jays, the department develops plans to provide transportation services for humans that also minimize the impact to the natural world.

The two department divisions with the most wildlife management responsibilities are Airport and Road Services. Staff at Boeing Field is primarily concerned with keeping birds away from aircraft, but that work involves monitoring several other species in the local food chain.

The Road Division has two concerns: separating animal movement from vehicle traffic; and minimizing the impact of construction and maintenance projects on wildlife and their habitat.

The wildlife plans for the divisions involve both research in the field and planning in the office to develop best management practices (BMP). The airport also has stringent Federal Aviation Administration regulations it must comply with and an annual federal plan to update.

“Our program focuses on non-lethal deterrents,” said Chris Hall, operations manager for the King County International Airport. “We are mostly concerned about birds in the air and on the ground coming in contact with airplanes, but any wildlife that has the ability to get on the runway is a threat.”

Hall said airport staff from operations, maintenance, and emergency responders from Aircraft Rescue Firefighting (ARFF) recently completed an annual training conducted by a wildlife biologist from the United States Department of Agriculture. Then throughout the year, the staff spends quite a bit of time patrolling airport grounds and documenting any wildlife sightings, using deterrents to scare them away, updating management practices for controlling wildlife access to Boeing Field, and keeping up with the latest techniques to prevent wildlife collisions.

Hall said it’s the small things that can make the biggest difference. Helping tenants control trash also helps control seagulls at the airport. Preventing rainwater from ponding on the grassy infield makes Boeing Field less attractive to ducks and geese. And, blocking access for rodents and rabbits prevents the airport from becoming a feeding ground for cats and coyotes.

King County Airport at Boeing Field uses air cannons to deter birds.

“If we see an influx of any kind of wildlife, we immediately look for what is attracting them and we try to shut it down right away whether it’s standing water or a hole in the fence,” he said.

The staff also takes special measures to discourage bird visits, such as using  noisy air cannons or cap guns to scare them off.

For the Road Division, getting to know the different species living in King County is the first step. Staff can then use the knowledge of the specific habitat needs, movement and feeding patterns to design a road or bridge project that provides the best travel options for both humans and animals while reducing the project’s impacts on wildlife.

Field research is also a key step in developing ongoing maintenance practices for the county’s existing road network that minimize habitat disruptions. The division worked with the Regional Road Maintenance Forum to develop a list of BMP to use while completing maintenance activities. The BMP include assessing maintenance sites for sensitive species, completing maintenance activities when possible during specified times of the year that they are less vulnerable to habitat disruptions, and when to use native plants to restore a site once the maintenance work is completed.

“We do some pretty extensive habitat surveys before we start a project,” said Wally Archuleta, managing engineer of the Road Services Division’s environmental unit. “It’s not just for fish. We do a lot for birds and mammals, too.”

Archuleta said safety for the traveling public is the top concern, along with protecting wildlife. A collision between a deer and a car or motorcycle is often deadly for both the driver and the animal, so the division is looking at new ways to divert animals away from roadways.

Often a project to improve a road can also help wildlife. In the past ten years, the division has replaced more than 100 culverts underneath roads to stabilize the road surface and reduce localized flooding. These new culverts are usually much larger than the ones they replace, and have the added benefit of providing a safer crossing for amphibians and animals of all sizes. In addition, the division recently received a grant from the state Department of Ecology to develop design guidelines and procedures that reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions associated with road projects.

Sometimes deterrents are used. Archuleta said netting can discourage birds from nesting on bridges that will soon be under construction. Fencing or the use of thorny and spiky shrubs planted along a roadside will often keep deer from bolting into traffic.

Archuleta said crews not only work around wildlife habitat, but also their habits. The Marbled Murrelet is a small seabird that nests at higher elevations but travels daily to the Puget Sound to feed. When these birds were discovered near bridge projects in the North Bend area, crews adjusted their daily work hours so that they would not interfere with the birds’ daily migration between feeding areas and nest sites.

“We used to just focus on fish and wetlands, but our program has expanded quite a bit to cover more species of wildlife,” said Archuleta. “And now, we try to fit our projects around their habitat instead of always making them adjust to ours.”

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REMINDER: Bandaret Bridge work begins this week Preliminary work on the project to replace an aging bridge on Southeast May Valley Road will start this week. Motorists should expect intermittent lane closures this week, but the long-term lane closures are not yet scheduled. The King County Road Services Division is replacing the 58-year-old Bandaret Bridge located on May Valley Road between 230th Avenue Southeast and 231st Place Southeast. The project will last through November, and for much of that time May Valley Road will be restricted to one lane. Traffic will be regulated by a set of temporary traffic signals. The existing timber bridge is being replaced because it is deteriorating, does not meet current seismic safety standards, and is too narrow to accommodate modern-day traffic volumes. Approximately 5,100 vehicles a day currently cross this bridge. The new bridge will have two 12-foot lanes and eight-foot shoulders. Ryerson Base wins transit safety award Congratulations to King County Metro’s Ryerson Base employees for posting the best rate of collision reductions for 2008. The annual transit safety award evaluates any collision - no matter how minor - between buses and fixed objects and other vehicles. Ryerson Base reduced its accident frequency by 32 percent over the previous year, and East Base followed with a 20 percent reduction. "This is the first time Ryerson Base has won this award, and we are all very proud,” said Ryerson Base Supervisor Abdul Alidina. "I’d like to thank the Ryerson Safety Awareness Team and all our employees for their hard work over the past year to achieve this honor.”

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