BRETT FRENCH Billings Gazette | Posted: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 12:00 am
BILLINGS, Mont. - A fatal air crash in Utah two months ago by a federal crew chasing and killing coyotes has prompted a Colorado group to petition for an end to aerial predator control.
"It's inherently dangerous, and it's crazy," said Wendy Keefover-Ring of Sinapu, which has created AGRO, A Coalition to End Aerial Gunning of Wildlife. "Just look at the crash reports we have."
On the group's Web site (www.goagro.org) is a list of all federal and nonfederal crashes by those involved in aerial predator hunting. Between 1975 and 2007, the group has tallied 55 accidents with 28 fatalities involving nonfederal aircraft and 51 accidents and 10 fatalities between 1979 and 2007 involving federal aircraft.
The most recent fatal federal crash on June 1 killed an aerial gunning crew in Loa, Utah.
"In many kinds of public safety government actions, there are risks involved," said Carol Bannerman, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services. "In the 1990s, Wildlife Services revamped its aerial training program and there have been only two fatal accidents in the last 10 years."
In Montana and Wyoming, as well as across the nation, an end to aerial gunning would seriously cut one of Wildlife Services' most productive means of killing coyotes. According to the agency's Web site, in 2006 more than 6,600 coyotes were killed in Montana by use of firearms (the statistics didn't break out aerial vs. ground gunning). But in 2005 in Montana, more than 3,900 coyotes - or 60 percent - were killed by aerial gunning.
In Wyoming, more than 4,500 coyotes were killed from fixed-wing aircraft in 2006, while 73 were taken from a helicopter. In 2005, more than 50 percent of coyotes killed by Wildlife Services in the state were killed by aerial gunning.
National figures from 2005, when aerial data was broken out, showed more than 27,000 coyotes killed by aerial gunning, or about 37 percent, out of the more than 72,000 coyotes killed by the agency.
"In some cases it is the most efficient and cost-effective method because of the distances involved and the ability to target specific predators," Bannerman said.
Without aerial predator control, Gary Littauer, assistant regional director for Wildlife Services, said ground staff would have to be more than doubled.
"You can get to more areas where you need some control work quicker by plane than you would if you had to send someone in on the ground," Littauer said.
Looking at the statistics Sinapu has compiled, it is nonfederal aircraft that have been involved in the majority of crashes while coyote hunting in Montana. Going back as far as 1974, the statistics tally 16 crashes with nine fatalities. The most recent crash involved a private Cessna that got banged up while trying to land at a coyote den near Jordan on July 13. No one was injured in the incident.
In Wyoming, the site details seven incidents and six fatalities going back as far as 1973. The most recent crash was near Baggs in 1999.
There's only been one federal crash in Montana. That occurred in 2003 near Big Timber when the helicopter's engine lost power. Injuries were minor. Two federal crashes were noted in Wyoming - one in 1990 near Rock Springs that involved minor injuries and another a day earlier that same year near Casper when the gunner shot the plane's propeller. The plane landed safely, and no one was injured.
Jim Greil, chief of the Montana Aeronautics Division, was contacted by Sinapu to verify the state's crash data.
"We didn't see any validity in what they were saying," he said. "It's just an angle they were looking for."
Pilot Brian Schwend, of Forsyth, used to take part in aerial coyote gunning when pelts reached an all-time high around $100 years ago. Now he said most such flights are federal or county subsidized.
"It's still kind of a necessity in this country," he said. "Without trappers anymore, you see coyotes everywhere."
Schwend's friend died in a crash while coyote hunting near Jordan years ago. He said his friend's accident was probably due to a lack of flying time and too little experience flying at low-levels.
"Most of the accidents are just from freak things," he said. "It's no different than going down a two-lane highway at night and having a deer jump out in front of you."
AGRO's petition, addressed to William Clay, deputy administrator of Wildlife Services, seeks an end to federal aerial gunning. "When people are dying to kill predators, predator control has gotten out of hand," the petition states.
"With coyotes it's this never-ending cycle," said Keefover-Ring of Sinapu. "The more you kill, the more you get. The USDA has even acknowledged that in a study."
AGRO's petition is signed by nine other individuals and representatives of organizations such as Billings' David Pauli, representing the Humane Society of the United States, and Janelle Holden, of the Predator Conservation Alliance in Bozeman.
Keefover-Ring doesn't expect Wildlife Services to change its behavior based on the petition.
"I think it's going to have to be a congressional issue for things to change," she said. "But if people understand this is going on, they'd be pretty amazed."