Patricia Houser
For Nature’s Sake
Patricia Houser
For those taking stock of the natural riches in our part of Connecticut, it’s easy to point to birds as a precious asset. The morning sounds of birds summering in Milford and Orange, although somewhat diminished from past years, reassures us that conservationist Rachel Carson’s cautionary tale of a time “when no birds sing” is not yet here.
For those interested in sustainability, birds are a useful indicator of what is going well or not with environmental protection (birds are our “canary in the coal mine”). Birding havens, like Milford Point and Silver Sands State Park, are linchpins of local eco-tourism; plus, the combination of cormorants, egrets, plovers, terns, osprey, herons, songbirds and more in our area confers invaluable benefits to visitors and residents alike.
Why then would a private landowner do anything to harass and even repel local bird populations?
Unlike professional firework displays, the widespread incidence of personal (and illegal) backyard and beachfront explosions in the weeks leading up to, during and after July 4 in our area have consequences that many may not realize. According to the state Department of Consumer Protection, it is illegal for non-professional, non-licensed individuals to purchase, use, possess or sell fireworks in Connecticut. Only sparklers (which don’t explode or fly into the air) are legal for those 16 and above.
Birds’ reactions to fireworks are one clue of their incompatibility. Fireworks are used, after all, to deliberately drive birds away at places like airports, where FAA wildlife experts utilize short, unpredictable explosions as part of their management strategy for repelling birds. In another application in 2022, the Oregon Department of Transportation is using a “gun-like mechanism that looks like a fireworks show” to clear birds out from under bridges that need maintenance.
In occasional gruesome incidents, fireworks can also kill large numbers of birds at a time. During a 2011 New Year’s celebration in Beebe, Arkansas, as many as 5,000 roosting birds, spooked by the noise, were killed as they flew into buildings, trees and each other. At a 2021 New Year’s celebration in Rome, hundreds of birds fell dead in the streets as a result of a particularly loud set of explosions near where birds were nesting. In the aftermath, the Italian branch of the International Organization for the Protection of Animals has called for a ban on selling firecrackers and fireworks for personal use, citing the threat to animals.
An endangered species biologist for the New England Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Susi von Oettengen, explained from her offices in New Hampshire how fireworks present an additional risk to birds already listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
“There are many different ways that fireworks can affect nesting shorebirds – whether they’re plovers or terns or oyster catchers. The noise and lights are startling. They go into their flight or fight response, and if they have young and everyone scatters, it leaves the young vulnerable to predation,” she said.
Because of that threat, the FWS has created distance guidelines for professional fireworks organizers. For instance, fireworks should not be detonated within a radius of half a mile of an area with piping plovers. In the case of nesting terns, which are far more sensitive, according to von Oettengen, a minimum distance three quarters of a mile is the rule.
“They will abandon their colony as a result of fireworks,” she said.
Noise in particular alarms shorebirds, says von Oettengen. “The noise is different – it’s even more than a thunderstorm,” she noted.
A secondary threat at fireworks shows is crowd behavior that can include treading on nesting areas in the dark and leaving trash near the nests, which attracts predators.
Professional firework displays do take many of those concerns into account; there are crowd management plans and perimeter guidelines, plus monitoring and state and local oversight that all contribute to public health and safety, according to Dan Worroll, organizer of Milford’s official fireworks display. Wildlife is considered too; Worrell remembers the city’s 375th anniversary planning eight years ago, when Walnut Beach was disqualified as a possible site for the city’s event because of proximity to threatened bird species at the Silver Sands refuge area and Charles Island.
Worroll, who served in the fire department for nearly 35 years and is currently chair of the Milford Parks, Beach, and Recreation Commission, also requires a scrupulous cleanup of the toxic particles that are strewn around an area in the aftermath of fireworks explosions.
The problem is that most of the fireworks in Milford and Orange, including many elaborate displays, are illegal. Thus, they don’t apply the monitoring, oversight, safety and wildlife guidelines that state and federal experts have deemed important for our communities.
All of that is very much on the mind of Orange Assistant Chief of Police Max Martins at this time of year. As he thinks of illegal backyard fireworks, Martins mulls over the problem of increased access to illegal fireworks, the challenges of catching a violator in the act, but also what seems to be a pattern of overall decline in civility and common courtesy.
“Nobody wants to be told what to do, and nobody wants to follow rules anymore,” he said.
It’s not that it’s just one day, either. The sporadic, loud explosions begin sometimes weeks before July 4 and extend long after. So does the need for cleanup and soothing the frayed nerves of pets and children and vulnerable adults.
Martins thinks in terms of his own household: “Listen, who doesn’t like a fireworks display now and then? But as a pet owner now I cringe because I know what it’s going to do to our dog.”
Considering the environmental angle in all this, Martins leaned back in his office chair to see a wren feeding her young in a homemade birdhouse outside his office window.
“We take it for granted until it’s not there,” he said. “People think, ‘Ah it will always be there’…but that’s not always true.”
Patricia Houser, PhD, AICP, shares her exploration of local and regional environmental issues in this column as a member of the nonpartisan Milford Environmental Concerns Coalition.