Or Goslings living or dying in the Central Park Reservoir can be a maximum of two 70s, nature-loving men who cross there for the first time this winter.
Edward Dorson, a nature photographer and regular visitor to the reservoir, learned in 2021 that federal employees there destroyed the eggs of Canada -Garzen as part of a government safety program to reduce Bird collisions with planes. He tried to stop.
He reached contact with animal rights organizations and wrote letters to various government agencies. He didn’t get anywhere.
Then in December he met Larry Schnapf, a strict talking environmental lawyer, who Mr. Dorson saw the birds admire and introduced himself. Mr. Dorson told him about the nest destruction. In his 40-year legal career, Mr. Schnapf was mainly focused on redeveloping contaminated properties, but had collected the incidental Pro Bono Passion project. “I told him that I am taking quixotic activities,” said Mr. Schnapf.
Now they work together to protect the eggs of a small population of Canada geese that nest around the reservoir, a popular attraction for joggers and bird viewers. The battle will undoubtedly be uphill: they lobby at multiple government agencies during a loaded time in aviation where bird strikes are one of the many worries, on behalf of a bird that is often described as one annoyance Because of his honking and the droppings that it leaves on lawns, parks and golf courses.
The men say they appreciate the importance of protecting planes. But they try to release the Central Park reserve of the egg nodring program, so that it can serve as a refuge for the nesting geese. They claim that Central Park is far from the airports of the area that the geese are not a major problem.
Mr. Schnapf said he is planning to send a cease and main letter to the port authority of New York and New Jersey, which supervises five large airports in the region, including Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Laguardia Airport. The agency works with an arm from the US Department of Agriculture on the safety program. “I think this is all illegal,” he said. “These are protected animals.”
Officials from the Port Authority have not commented on the interests of the two men. But they emphasized that government efforts such as those in Central Park were part of creating safer conditions for air travel.
“Managing nature risks – especially of the geese of Resident Canada – near our airports is a safety safety, essential and essential for maintaining safe activities,” said Laura Francoeur, the most important natural biologist of the port authority.
Although Canada geese are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the authorities have obtained an exemption to control the population. The birds, which can weigh up to 19 pounds and have a wingspan of up to 5.5 feet, according to the Cornell Lab or OrnithologyCan be sucked into aircraft engines and bring down an airplane.
Between 2008 and 2023 there were 451 aviation accidents involving commercial aircraft in the United States, with a total of 17 caused by bird attacks, which produce five injuries and no fatalities, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
New York City stretched its grip on Canada Ganzen in 2009, after a collision with a herd -caused US Airways Flight 1549, driven by Chesley B. Sullenberger III, to lose both engines shortly after it left Laguardia. The plane was forced in an emergency waters in which is now generally known as the “Wonder on the Hudson. “
The event led the port authority to the Ministry of Agriculture to ask for help. In 2010, Federal Animals in the Wild Management of Canada Ganzenpopulations in itself took Within seven miles From the most important airports in the city, also in city parks.
Mr. Schnapf calls the current rules an over -range, since guidelines for federal aviation administration only ask for wildlife management Five miles of airports. A spokeswoman for the port authority said that the agency honors all federal regulations, including the tackling of dangers in the wild within five miles of airports. But she added that the desk often goes beyond that jet when specific threats occur.
Data from the FAA Show that Canada Ganzen strikes on Laguardia and Kennedy Airports have remained consistent in the past two decades, between zero and four authorities per year.
Canada geese thrive in human-friendly landscapes and their population has emerged in North America for the past four decades. Many geese have become so comfortable in parks and other green spaces, such as the reservoir, that they have stopped migrating and become residents all year round.
There are approximately 228,000 resident Canada geese in the state of New York, an increase of 150,000 in 2002. The Ministry of Environmental Protection of the State would like the number of shrinking up to 85,000.
The two men who fight for the resident geese of the Central Park Reservoir were both born in the Bronx, are similar in age and diet (one is a vegetarian, the other a vegan). But the similarities end there more or less.
Mr. Dorson, 77, An completed underwater photographer and conservationist with a background in art, is a soft spoken enthusiast of animal-hungable loving helped one shark reserve In Palau, in Micronesia. Mr. Schnapf, 72, is a fast -talking, fast -acting networker who is not afraid to make noise.
“I told Ed,” he said, “you have to rattle the bureaucracy.”
Mr Dorson and Mr. Schnapf hope to meet officials from the Port Authority, the Central Park Conservancy and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the City, who supervises the reservoir, including decision makers.
“The only thing we are trying to do is to bring them to talk to us so that we can come up with a plan so that some of those eggs can at least be hatched,” said Mr. Schnapf.
Mr. Dorson admitted that, at the moment, “I don’t see too many people like me who worry about the geese.”
“But maybe in 10 years, when there are no geese here, people can feel the loss,” he said. “I would like to change that.”
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