Wildlife and Environment

Issues and Concerns

“The new and profound conservation planning paradigm of our time is cumulative effects. Throughout space and time, the collective impacts of countless small and seemingly inconsequential anthropogenic events compromises wildlife well-being… many scientific studies show how our frequent intrusion into wildlife habitat can lead to displacement of many bird and mammal species from their preferred habitats… compromising their security, reproductive success and overall fitness… Some might reason that the animals could certainly move somewhere else. But where will that be, exactly?”

Susan Morse, Founder and Lead Scientist, Keeping Track, as quoted in Farm to Forest by Angus Cummings

Around the world, studies have shown the negative effects of air traffic on wildlife, domestic animals and pets. Air traffic in mountainous and remote areas can trigger stress reactions in wildlife as if to predators. Increased stress levels impact reproduction, foraging, and survival. It is not just the aircraft sound that impacts animals – they are also sensitive to vibrations as well as visual cues, especially from overhead.

Aircraft flying at fairly low altitudes may encounter a variety of local birds, including geese, ducks, and hawks which are particularly prevalent in the early spring and throughout the summer. Flight paths, particularly at 500 feet and below, will require a very diligent ‘see and avoid’ effort with local birds to ensure safety for both pilots and wildlife.

Electric aircraft have not been shown to have less of an impact on wildlife and domestic animals. Low flying electric aircraft can sneak up on an unsuspecting horse and rider, for example, and result in a spooked horse. Livestock that are not accustomed to overhead sounds or sights can also spook easily and break fences, or a leg, or worse. Take off and landing of electric aircraft are also not significantly quieter than conventional planes.

In addition to the air traffic itself, construction of private airstrips and helipads can have significant environmental and community impacts that should be considered, including on neighbors, wetlands and waterways.

Private landing areas and helipads are part of a wider environment and the impacts of air traffic on birds, wildlife, and ecologically healthy landscapes should be assessed on a case by case basis. Guidance can be provided by the VT Agency of Natural Resources and VT Fish and Wildlife’s Vermont Conservation Design and other state efforts to identify and map high priority conservation areas. Vermont Conservation Design is a state-wide plan to sustain the state’s valued natural areas, forests, waters, wildlife, and plants for future generations.

“Variations in both noise and species characteristics can result in a range of effects on wildlife – the most extreme resulting in major impacts. These include effects ranging from direct physical damage (e.g. to hearing), increased physiological stresses (e.g. from increased energy expenditure or reduced energy accumulation) or from the consequences of their behavioral responses (e.g. attraction, tolerance, aversion and flight) (NPS 1994). Noise can also have an indirect effect; for example, through changes to the quality of an animal’s habitat.”

The impact of noise on recreationists and wildlife in New Zealand’s natural areas. New Zealand Department of Conservation, 2011

“The potential effects of noisy human activities on wildlife are of increasing interest to researchers and wildlife conservationists (Lima and Dill, 1990): the disturbance caused by such noisy activities as helicopter traffic was described in different taxa (Barber et al., 2010; Chan and Blumstein, 2012) ranging from birds (Harris, 2005; Hughes et al., 2008) to mammals (Bleich et al., 1990; Miller and Gunn, 1979; Southwell, 2005; Stankowich, 2008; White and Gregovich, 2017). In fact, wild animals have evolved behavioural responses to specific predator-like stimuli such as noisy and fast objects (Dill, 1974), paraglide and other outdoor activities (Gander and Ingold, 1997; Schnidrig-Petri and Ingold, 2001), which are perceived as threats (Knight and Cole, 1991). The effects of human-caused disturbance on animal behaviour can be similar to the effects of predation risks and environmental threats (Frid and Dill, 2002), or even more marked (Ciuti et al., 2012). Indeed, helicopter disturbance may have short-term behavioural effects such as reduction in foraging activity (Tracey and Fleming, 2007), increase in vigilance behaviour (Giese and Riddle, 1999) and change in time budgets, as well as long-term effects, such as habitat shift (Cadsand, 2012) and increase in home range size (Andersen et al., 1990). The behavioural response to helicopter disturbance may also include increased metabolic rate (experiments conducted with unmanned aerial vehicles − UAV: Ditmer et al., 2015) and decreased forage intake (Stockwell et al., 1991). Human activities, therefore, may affect several life history traits such as individual reproductive success and population dynamics.”

Assessing the effects of helicopter disturbance in a mountain ungulate on different time scales. Mammalian Biology, 2018

“Public surveys show strong support for conservation in Vermont. Vermonters value wildlife, nature, the state’s rural character, and our working forests and farms. We depend on the natural landscape to support these and other values.”

Vermont Conservation Design: Maintaining and Enhancing an Ecologically Functional Landscape. VT Agency of Natural Resources, 2018

“Animals use sound for a variety of reasons, including to navigate, find food, attract mates, and avoid predators. Noise pollution makes it difficult for them to accomplish these tasks, which affects their ability to survive.”

Noise Pollution. National Geographic, 2022

“Noise-elicited stress is the key factor that strengthens the argument that wildlife exposure to chronic noise can jeopardize medium and large sized mammal reproduction in conservation areas affected by noise.”

Airport noise and wildlife conservation: What are we missing? ABEC, 2019

“Collisions between birds and planes is an issue that airports and air transportation agencies have been taking very seriously for some time now… From 1990 to 2013, 142,675 wildlife strikes were reported, 97 percent of which involved birds.”

Threats to Birds: Collisions-Aircraft. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, 2016

“Energy is analogous to our currency for wildlife. Any animal out there facing a Vermont winter has just so much energy in the savings account, and if they spend more energy than they should because they are frightened and stressed – and just being stressed does this, and we can measure it through cortisol levels – they run out of their energy budget. They are not like us, they can’t get a loan, many will curl up and expire.”

Susan Morse, Founder and Lead Scientist, Keeping Track