Costly effort to protect nesting birds

A recently released report from Caltrans on the costs associated with protecting nesting cliff swallows beneath the Petaluma River bridge indicates that the agency spent $5.5 million on the effort, most of which could have been avoided had state workers adopted a more prudent plan for protecting the birds at the outset.

A memorandum from the California Department of Transportation (CTC) details how Caltrans acquired an additional $5.5 million in funds for the completion of Highway 101 renovations at the Petaluma bridge. This included the costs of defending themselves against a lawsuit that was filed after dozens of dead birds began showing up at the construction site.

Cliff swallows, who migrate 6,000-miles annually from Argentina to Petaluma, have historically been known to build nests of mud under the Petaluma River bridge between late February and early August. As part of the bridge reconstruction project, in 2013 contractors placed netting under the bridge to deter the swallows from interfering with the construction zones. But the plan backfired, and instead ensnared and killed the birds.

Environmentalists sued, saying the project should stop while impacts on the swallow colony were studied. After a federal judge’s ruling, Caltrans reached a settlement with the groups. As a part of that settlement, Caltrans replaced all netting with new materials, with project costs quickly escalating into the millions of dollars.

“The field and office staff was...heavily involved in providing support to the legal defense team to block the injunction, cooperate with the Fish and Wildlife criminal investigation, defend the lawsuit, and negotiate the ultimate settlement,” wrote Division of Transportation Programming Chief Rachel Falsetti on January 22 to the California Transportation Commission.

A new bridge is replacing the current bridge, which is part of an on-going renovation of Highway 101 between Novato and Santa Rosa.

During the 2012-2013 nesting season, Cal Trans officials estimated 67 birds were killed from the nets. Veronica Bowers, director of Native Songbird Care and Conservation (NSCC) in Sebastopol, said the total was over 200 bird deaths.

“The birds are federally protected animals and Cal Trans knew that bridge was used by them to nest,” said an angry Bowers this week. “Those birds were not going away and everything Cal Trans did to stop them was wrong, wrong, wrong!”

A lawsuit filed by Bowers, three local chapters of the Audubon Society, and The Center for Biological Diversity went to the U.S 9th Circuit and was settled in their favor on January 16, 2014. Cal Trans was forced to halt construction at the site for four months until a new system of preventative measures could be built to keep the birds from nesting. Terms of the settled lawsuit included replacing the netting with a hard surface paneling that created a slick surface that the birds could not build on. Other provisions included monitoring of the site during the nesting period.

Cal Trans requested and received the money from the CTC, but some state legislators were incensed, with one noting that the state “could have built condos” for the birds with the money.

Critics charged that had Caltrans taken prudent steps to protect the birds from harm initially, it would have saved millions of taxpayer dollars.

Cal Trans detailed their expenditures in the request for the additional $5.5 million. The agency said it needed $1.53 million just for the legal defense against the lawsuit and a full time engineer to “monitor, coordinate, and document” the process of keeping the birds from nesting in 2013 and 2014. Paying for the increased hours of the resident engineer, senior environmental planner, senior construction engineer, and the pubic relations staff were also incorporated into the $5.5 million.

Cal Trans said the agency spent $1.5 million to pay for a team of outside biological consultants who monitored the site “seven days a week during the majority of the bird nesting season.” Caltrans said it cost $800,000 to “implement” the changes from nets to planks, and that the 2013 delays in work caused by the suit – which they said shut the project down from January through May of 2013 – cost them $1.7 million.

According to Madrone Audubon Society past president Susan Kirks, the impact of the changes forced upon Cal-Trans resulted in no bird injuries or deaths during the Cliff Swallows 2014 migration.

If planned as scheduled, the new version of the Petaluma bridge will be completed this year and demolition of the old bridge will commence.

Kirks said that despite Cal Trans’ “inadequate environmental review” which she said “caused the death of birds” and “the taxpayers more money,” the end result could be a positive for future projects.

“Hopefully this will be the last year we have to deal with this issue,” said Kirks. “We showed them a better alternative and that should be utilized for projects in the future.