Digital Commons Network^™

Field Evaluation Of A Visual Barrier To Discourage Gull Nesting, Patricia A. Pochop, John L. Cummings, Richard M. Engeman

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Expanding gull populations along the Columbia River have been implicated in depredations to threatened and endangered migrating salmon smolt, depredations to agriculture crops, bird-aircraft strike hazards, nuisance problems, and potential threats to public health. In an effort to develop management methods for controlling gull populations, we tested a visual barrier to discourage gulls from nesting on an island in the Columbia River. The barrier material is a woven black polypropylene fabric that we utilized to take advantage of the gulls' innate predator avoidance mechanisms, by removing their line of sight to approaching terrestrial predators while providing no protection from aerial …