Who attends Bird Strike Committee USA meetings
The Annual BSC USA meeting, which is held in conjunction with the annual conference, is open to any person interested in reducing wildlife hazards to aviation and in wildlife and environmental management at airports. Those interested in participating as a member may reach out to a current steering committee for more information. Elections are held twice annually.
Committee Structure and Bylaws
Bird Strike Committee USA (BSC USA) is a volunteer organization dedicated to providing leadership in managing wildlife strikes to aviation. The BSC USA Steering Committee sets policy and is responsible for the actions of BSC USA in accordance with the bylaws.
Executive Committee
The five-member Executive Committee includes three voting members of the Steering Committee—the Chair, Vice Chair, and Immediate Past Chair, who are empowered to lead the Steering Committee and take action on behalf of the Steering Committee. Two non-voting positions, the Secretary and Treasurer, support the Executive Committee.
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee includes representatives from eight classes of membership identified in the bylaws: the Aerospace Industry, Airlines, U.S. Airports, U.S. Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), U.S, Department of Agriculture/APHIS/Wildlife Services (USDA WS), Private Sector Services, and a general classification. Each membership class includes up to three representatives and functions as a subcommittee within the greater Steering Committee.
Aerospace
Michael Millat
Pratt & Whitney
Roger Nicholson
Aerospace Industry Representative
One Aerospace position open
Airports
Nick Atwell
Portland International Airport
Laura Francoeur
The Port Authority of
NY & NJ
Steven Boyd
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
U.S Department Of Defense
Jay Higgins
U.S. Navy
Dan Sullivan
U.S. Air Force
Mike Culley
Air National Guard
Ernest LeGrande
Space Force
Private Sector
Ann Hodgson
Resource Design Inc.
Joe Barnes
Lumen International, Inc.
One private sector position OPEN
General
Faridah Dahlan
Smithsonian
Jay Tischendorf
AERIE Institute
Yakubu Ogwu Isah
Research Fellow
Kinjal Patel
Green Wings
Standing Committee
Five standing committees are responsible for implementing activities identified by the Standing Committee: Membership, Annual Conference, Operations & Policy, Research & Development, and Education & Outreach. Standing Committee membership does not include voting privileges.
Operations & Policy
Selena Creed
Wayne County Airport Authority
Research & Development
Troy Levanen
Alaska Airlines
Education & Outreach
Matthew Powers
Dane County Airport Authority
Members Emeriti
Emeritus Members, who are nominated and elected by voting members of the Steering Committee. Emeritus members are voting members who graciously lend their expertise to the committee and its work in support of aviation wildlife hazard management.
Industry Liaison
Formation and History: Three Decades of Collaboration
In August 1991, Jim Forbes, New York State Director of USDA Wildlife Services (WS), seized the opportunity to call a special meeting during an annual FAA Technical Center Airports Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Bird Strike Committee was formed. The invitees and attendees included FAA representative Eugene LeBoeuf; Technical Center representative Tom Hupf; USAF BASH Team representative Ron Merrit; WS New Jersey State Director Janet Sillings (Bucknall); Eastern Region FAA Airport Certification Inspector Vincent Cimino; USDA National Wildlife Research Center representative Richard Dolbeer; and Jim Forbes himself. The meeting was called to discuss heightened environmental issues and increases in population numbers of waterfowl, gulls, and other large birds as they pertained to aviation safety.
Jim Forbes was named as the Bird Strike Committee’s first Chairperson. His inspiration came from the Bird Strike Committee, Canada (BSCC), whose meetings he attended regularly in the 1980s. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) stated in Part 3 of their Airport Services Manual (Chapter 3) that each country should develop a bird strike committee, comprised of interested groups, to meet regularly and provide guidance regarding wildlife risk mitigation.
Meeting attendee Eugene (Gene) LeBoeuf was hired in 1989 as the first FAA Wildlife Biologist. One of his first orders of business was to use the newly formed BSC-USA to assist him in carrying out the myriad tasks he was responsible for. During his tenure from 1989 – 2005, while participating with the newly formed BSC-USA, Gene drafted the first FAA Advisory Circular, advocated to implement a robust National Wildlife Strike Reporting system and database, and rallied hard to bring wildlife aviation safety issues to the FAA’s forefront.
Early BSC-USA meeting in in the 1990s focused on the importance of data collection using a national strike reporting platform. Dr. Richard Dolbeer, USDA Wildlife Biologist, assumed the reins of leadership from Jim in 1996 with the help from WS’s Laura Henze from 1996-1997. Richard drafted the Committee’s bylaws in 1997, which received a majority vote, and Richard was elected as the second BSC-USA Chair.
In 1998, Richard Dolbeer and BSCC Chair Bruce MacKinnon announced a partnership of joint annual BSC-North America meetings to be held alternately in Canada and the United States. This agreement began a collaboration that commenced in Vancouver Canada in 1999, and joint conferences continue to occur at regular intervals.
BSC-USA began as a meeting of a handful of professionals in 1991 whose platform was and still is to provide input to the FAA (and military when appropriate) for guidance and rulemaking pertaining to wildlife hazards to aviation. Annual meeting participation now exceeds hundreds of attendees representing the FAA, airlines, pilots, private and government wildlife and environmental professionals, civil and military aviation, and Airport Operations personnel.
BSC has come a long way. And we look forward to great progress in the future.