Port of Olympia Executive Director Alex Smith addressed concerns about this week’s air show coinciding with the breeding season of larks.
Conservation group Black Hills Audubon Society raised the issue about the air show which will take place on June 15 to 16 at the Olympia Regional Airport. The event is taking place despite the ongoing breeding season of larks which lasts from March to August.
During a Port Commission meeting on Monday, June 10, Smith explained that there have been past conversations with the Olympic Air Museum, the event’s organizer, to schedule the event outside of the breeding season. According to Smith, the museum cannot hold the air show at a different time as it is timing the event for the appropriate weather and because it has to consider the availability of the aircraft that visit the air show.
Smith also explained the mechanism that allows them to run the yearly air show. The executive director said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services issued a biological opinion in 2018, allowing for the air show but only with certain measures to mitigate the event’s impact.
The opinion was only valid until 2023, so the port had to request an extension to conduct this year’s air show. Smith disclosed that they only received USFWS’ authorization to extend its biological opinion earlier that day.
USFWS will have to conduct another assessment before next year’s show. Smith said that they will work to start the process with USFWS this fall.
The biological opinion is a requirement of the Federal Aviation Administration which issues a waiver to permit the event. Smith explained that the waiver is triggered due to the height that the planes fly during the event.
The executive director added that there were two measures contained in the biological opinion. First is that the airport needs to fence the event area to prevent larks from nesting within the confines of the area show.
The second measure is for parking to be located in areas near hangars which are supposedly less likely to be gopher habitat. Smith said they have been alternative between parking locations every year to avoid soil compaction.
The executive director said that USFWS has approved the airport’s parking plan for the event, but they are open to conversations with the museum about changing the parking areas in the future.
Sue Danver, who was a member of Black Hills Audubon Society member but was not speaking for the organization, said that the Audubon Society documented damaged gopher mounds due to the parking of vehicles in last year’s air show. Danver described the damage as dozens of mounds being smashed with tire tracks all over them.
Danver also complained in a previous Port Commission meeting about the Washington Department of Natural Resources conducting helicopter training activities on lark habitat.
Smith addressed this issue, saying that the designated helicopter training areas are not known nesting areas for larks.
Commissioner Jasmine Vasavada, who had requested port staff for more information about topic, thanked Smith for the update, but questioned if seeking an FAA waiver could be part of the commission’s authority.
“I wanted to flag that because I'm trying to think it can't be that just every year, Black Hills comes in in March and we say, ‘too late, too late to engage, too late to think of anything but next time.’ We need to have a way that we are really engaging,” Vasavada said.
Vasavada also invited other commissioners to reconsider their authority and have a discussion on the matter in a future meeting.
Danver, who was the first to bring the issue to the commission via public comments two weeks ago, said she was disappointed with the port’s administration.
“I'm disappointed at the port administration's indifference to the endangered species at the Olympia Airport. I do recognize that we have new commissioners with a new commission structure and some improvements to port’s governance has occurred already. Let's hope next year the commission will protect the habitat of larks and gophers,” Danver said.
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Bobwubbena
Guess what, many of you have had children and family members move to Thurston County over the last 20 plus years. People and families also need to be considered in the "space for the goffers and the larks". So much opinion with very little information or suggestions on how the 300,000 and growing population of Thurston County is to live amongst the gofers and the larks---not just for one day---but for years into the future. Let's quit overreacting to a few overreacting individuals that fail to help solve the population growth of the world and Thurston County while the dream of "yesteryear" when Thurston County was still an untilled prairie. Come with a real solution as you take away a commonsense approach.
One voice does not dictate a solution.
Thursday, June 13 Report this
Claire
Nature is a self-healing phenomenon. This is a tempest in a teapot. Get over it!
Friday, June 14 Report this
Claire
Upon further thought, this is really about a bunch of Karens who don't like the 2-day noise event that brings a lot of joy to the spectators and participants. Under the guise of disrupting "nature". As I said earlier, get over it.
Friday, June 14 Report this
KarenM
Claire - without getting into the substance of this topic, I would like to ask you to please refrain from using the name 'Karen' when you want to describe a certain kind of behavior. There happen to be many people out in the world named Karen and you cannot possibly know that they all behave in the same way. I would ask you to consider how you would feel if the name Claire became a common way to refer to behaviors that people don't like. I suspect you would not like your name to become a derogatory statement.
Friday, June 14 Report this
johnvaneenwyk
Interesting comments. Here are a few reflections:
“People and families also need to be considered in the "space for the goffers [sic] and the larks”.”
People and families have filled in most of the natural spaces in Thurston County (eg: roads, highways, impervious surfaces, grass, etc). How much more should be paved over? It sounds like Sue Danver is speaking for Thurston County residents who are simply trying to preserve what little is left.
“Let's quit overreacting to a few overreacting individuals that fail to help solve the population growth of the world and Thurston County while the dream of "yesteryear" when Thurston County was still an untilled prairie. Come with a real solution as you take away a commonsense approach.”
To ask for a real solution in the face of being robbed of a commonsense approach and then to call those with whom we do not agree “overreacting individuals that [sic] fail to to help solve the population growth of the world…[and] dream of “yesteryear”” is a textbook example of the psychological concept of “projection.”
“Nature is a self-healing phenomenon.”
It certainly is. When one aspect of nature threatens the rest of nature, nature eliminates that one aspect. At the moment, that one aspect is us! Take note of the number of humans who die this (and following) summer(s) of excessive heat and major weather events. Puts nature’s self-healing into perspective.
“Under the guise of disrupting "nature". As I said earlier, get over it.”
Get over disrupting nature? See above. One has only to view commercials that enthusiastically market vehicles that glory in the ability to tear up fragile ecosystems (rivers, high elevation flora, deserts, etc) to see how much we equate destruction with power and control.
That’s the main challenge: To preserve rather than to disturb. We can all work together to do better. Our children, grandchildren, and beyond will thank us for it.
Saturday, June 15 Report this
Southsoundguy
All of this is a bunch of liberal navel gazing.
Monday, June 17 Report this