Wildlife Service talks tough on OLF

Navy plan for airfield near bird sanctuary is in conflict with purpose of refuge, director says

PLYMOUTH -- With a panorama of Pungo Lake at his back, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday that his agency is in direct conflict with the U.S. Navy over a planned airstrip near a refuge that attracts thousands of migratory birds.

"We have a national wildlife refuge whose purpose is to pull birds in," said Dale Hall, director of the agency, which manages over 500 refuges nationwide. "The mission of the outlying landing field would be to push birds away."

The Navy wants to build an airfield for pilots to practice aircraft-carrier landings about five miles from the refuge, which attracts waterfowl each winter.

The Navy likes the site, straddling Washington and Beaufort counties, because it is near both Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, where squadrons of Super Hornet fighter jets would be based. Currently, pilots train at a field near Oceana, but development around the airfield has led to noise complaints and conflicts with neighbors.

The Navy's favored site, however, has raised controversy in North Carolina among landowners, environmentalists and wildlife advocates. The site is opposed by Gov. Mike Easley, who has called on Congress to block $10 million in federal funding for that site.

Symbolic support

Hall's visit and appearance at a public hearing in Swan Quarter on Monday night showed strong symbolic support from the agency's top tier for the service's field biologists who have raised concerns about the Navy's plan.

Hall said thousands of birds migrated to the lake during the winter. He said he saw flocks of swans during an airplane tour of the lake Monday before taking a van tour, but the lake was tranquil as most of the tundra swans, ducks and geese have returned North for the summer.

The director said the Pocosin Lakes provide sanctuary to migratory waterfowl and endangered red wolves. He said the American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit that seeks to conserve birds and their habitats, designated the Pungo Lake area that is part of the refuge as a globally important bird area.

In addition, Hall said, the refuge attracts 20,000 to 30,000 visitors each year. The roar of jet engines would shatter the public's experience, he said.

Hall said the Navy had not adequately explored other sites. Environmental groups and state leaders have called on the Navy to choose another.

Among the biggest concerns cited by opponents is the risk of birds colliding with jets -- a problem that can cause jets to crash. Birds forage for food such as winter wheat and corn in the fields around the refuge, and the daily movements of thousands of these birds would pose a severe risk to pilots and aircraft about half the year, bird-strike experts say.

Hall said the noise of jets could cause the birds to flush.

"If something spooks the birds at night you could have a minimum of several thousand birds flying up in the path of pilots who can't see them," Hall said.

To reduce the risk, the Navy has proposed that farmers plant other food crops in about 30,000 acres surrounding the airstrip. Navy officials say that effort will discourage the birds from flocking near the jet runway. But the Navy also would use dogs and fireworks to scare off birds. And if scare tactics don't work, the Navy suggests using poison and firearmst.

"We have certainly let the Navy know we don't believe it is a viable option to use chemicals to kill animals near the refuge," Hall said Monday.

Hall also appeared before the first of six public hearings the Navy is holding to gather feedback about its plan, which has drawn attention from North Carolina residents throughout the state. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on Monday requested an additional hearing to be held in Charlotte.

Dole wants hearing

In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter, Dole said the outlying landing field has attracted attention across the state. There now are public hearings scheduled in eastern counties, but none in the middle or western part of the state.

"The Navy's proposed OLF has attracted the attention of residents from all corners of North Carolina," Dole wrote in her letter to Winter. She said a Charlotte location would be easily accessible for other residents. In an interview this month, Dole said she has "serious concerns" about the proposed landing field but will not intervene in the Navy's continuing site selection process.

(Staff writer Barbara Barrett contributed to this report.)