Reviewing the news: Train danger and trash birds

May 1, 1924: Dangerous rail crossing to get special guard

In response to action by the city council, the Michigan Public Utilities commission has directed that watchmen be placed on the Emmet street crossing of the Pennsylvania, near the McManus office site.

The order is effective May 10 to October 1 inclusive, for the hours between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Trains are directed to reduce speed to 10 miles per hour or less, and during the time the crossing is not protected by watchmen, all switch movements are to be protected by one of the train crew.

The city council started the campaign for protective measures by asking for a hearing by the commission, which sent an engineer to the city and who looked over the situation. His recommendation was to the effect that crossing needed protection and the order by the commission followed on April 28th.

Members of the city council are being congratulated on securing early and favorable action by the Lansing authorities.

May 2, 1974: Emmet bird damage to crops may be $100,000 — Worsening

Emmet County has a bird problem which seems to be getting worse instead of better.

That’s the conclusion that came out of a meeting last night between area farmers and Senator Robert Davis (R-Gaylord).

No one — not even the most ardent of bird watchers — likes the company of trash birds in his backyard, or worse, nibbling on his crops. But trash birds are on the increase here causing perhaps $1500 in crop damage per farmer each year.

Herbert Hemmes, Emmet County Farm Bureau Information Director, took a survey of 13 area farmers recently asking them to assess crop damage due to birds. The respondents reported a total loss of $15,280 or an average of $1000 to $1500 per farmer. With 100 active farmers in Emmet County, crop damage might cost them about $100,000 in total.

Hemmes said that rising food and farm prices made the bird problem especially critical now.

Trash birds

Every summer thousands of starlings, grackels, red wing blackbirds and cow birds feast on cherry, corn and wheat crops during the day and roost by the Bear River at night.

According to Wilbur Brown, owner of a cherry orchard on Eppler-rd. the bird problem began to get bad about 10 years ago. At that time, Brown contacted the DNR and the state for help. Brown was advised to build traps along the river to snag the birds when they came to roost.

The trap was put in and birds were caught to the tune of 600 a day. Last summer, according to Petoskey City Manager Richard Gorman, the Bear River trap was disposing of 1500 to 2000 birds a day and costing about $600 a year to operate.

Gorman said that 99 percent of the trapped birds were starlings.

Most farmers at Thursday’s meeting agreed that the Bear River trap had done little to alleviate the problem. Birds are hatching faster than they are being trapped.

Biological control

The problem won’t be solved by trapping and killing the birds, said Bill Foster, ornithologist at the University of Michigan Biological Station.

Foster suggested that wide ranging biological control was the only way to weed trash birds out.

Under a government supervised program, trash birds could perhaps be sterilized by feeding them drug injected food.

Alarm calls, currently in use by Emmet County farmers have not seen much success. The call may scare a flock away temporarily. But in the end the birds will return — fortified with more numbers.

Pilot program for Emmet?

Senator Davis told the group he will ask the DNR to investigate the Emmet County bird program — with the idea of initiating a pilot bird control program which could be used elsewhere.

Davis said he would “make a concentrated effort to see what is feasible” and that he would try to get some results before the bird problem gets critical this summer.

Farmers say that trash bird flocks reach menacing proportions by June 1.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Reviewing the news: Train danger and trash birds