SELLERSBURG — Officials at the Clark Regional Airport are taking measures to control a growing wildlife nuisance at the airport.
John Secor, airport manager, said he recently contacted the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to see what steps he can take to help with coyotes and wild turkeys that are getting too comfortable at the facility. Being in a rural area near woods tends to bring the animals out, and Secor, a longtime pilot, said that's an issue many airports face.
“They've been around quite a while, but it seems like they're becoming more of a problem," he said. "We will never take care of it completely, but we can try to chase away the ones that seem to be a little tamer and seem to be coming around a little more. The toughest thing is we have coyotes that lay in the runway, so we have to do something about them."
He said turkeys are a bigger issue, due to their recent population growth.
“Turkeys and airplanes don't mix," he said. “We have turkeys that like to run in packs and they fly; you can't build a dome around the airport so they're going to be there."
Secor said airport management has chased off or tried to scare coyotes that entered into the populated side of the airport, the north side. He said they will still use this as a first resort, and hope later to have a perimeter fence built. If they feel an animal is threatening, Secor said they may shoot it.
“One of the plans at the end of our construction project is a perimeter fence, however it's not going to keep the turkeys out and the wild dogs are just going to dig underneath it,” he said. “There is no way to keep the wildlife completely away from the airport, we just got to try to — the ones that we see — we're going to keep them as far away as we can and if we see a threat, we're going to shoot to kill.”
He said they have a plan to try to hunt some of the turkeys to keep that population down.
“We haven't gotten there yet,” he said.
Secor said he plans to follow guidelines set forth by the Indiana DNR regarding animal control at public use airports.
Linnea Peterchess, operations staff specialist at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, said Secor is within his rights to trap or shoot certain species of animals on the airport property if they are causing harm or becoming a nuisance.
“For the manager of a public use airport or their designee, they do not need a permit or license to trap coyotes on their property around what they call the airport operations area, basically where the planes are going in or out,” she said.
While a state permit or license is not required for the manager or property owner to take deer, wild turkeys, coyotes or migratory birds, the airport is required to report annually to the DNR the total number of animals it has taken.
She said the wildlife issues are not unique to Clark Regional Airport.
“We've had calls from numerous airports with some issues with coyotes,” she said. “And they've had to take their own measures.”
Jim Robinson, president at JR Aviation, has been one of the subtenants of the airport for 16 years. He said he sees at least one or two coyotes every day.
“I don't scare easily, but at night they certainly come up to the ramp,” Robinson said.
While he operates helicopters that don't require a runway, he said he has from time to time been asked to chase coyotes off the runway for a plane that was landing.
As a longtime tenant of the airport, he said there aren't really more coyotes, but the ones around are more comfortable with people.
“When they hear the large mowers that are out mowing at the airport, they'll come running,” he said. “They'll run up right behind the mower. They've learned that as that mower goes across the ground, it stirs up mice and so forth.
“A wild animal wouldn't come that close to noise or human presence, but these guys are comfortable with it.”
Secor said he hopes officials can work to keep the coyotes over at the east side of the airport, near a creek and wooded area where he said they originated.
“Frankly, we can't stop wildlife issues; it's an issue at every airport. But we've got to do something about it," he said. "If we don't do something about it, we're not doing our job.”