Crossposted from the Plane Talk Newsletter

King County International Airport recently received an award from United States Department of Agriculture’s Washington State office for a project promoting wildlife excellence. Dave Decoteau, deputy director of the airport, accepted the award on KCIA’s behalf at the 2024 Washington Airport Management Association Annual Conference in May.

The airport’s Innovation Section received the award for partnering with USDA to develop the Wildlife Hazard Assessment Tool (WHAT) application.

“It is an application for capturing wildlife observations on our airfield,” said Vanessa Chin, Innovation Section Manager for the airport. “This tool will help provide USDA and our airport with information and trends on wildlife (like birds, bunnies, etc.) to help us better understand our options to deter or migrate wildlife away from airside.”

“The Washington State USDA has been looking for a while to manage wildlife data across all airports in the state,” Chin said. “Ultimately, life safety is our highest concern, casualties may occur if a plane ingests a bird.”

Chin and Laurence Schafer, USDA Wildlife Services WA Airport Coordinator and Staff Wildlife Biologist, developed the vision for a new application. Christopher Lang, USDA Biologist, built the app, which is now in the testing phase, working with Ricky Buchanan, Business Analyst at KCIA, to see how it works at KCIA.

“We’re the test bed for USDA to try out this application, and if it’s a success at our airport, then they’re going to use that model to then share it out to others in the state,” Buchanan explained.

KCIA may be the first urban airport to test such an app, Buchanan said. He said that the USDA has worked with rural areas in Alaska on a similar project.

“They’re really happy to get us involved because we’re a major hub airport in a big city,” Buchanan said.

Pictured: From left, Dave Decoteau, Deputy Director; Ricky Buchanan, Business Analyst and Vanessa Chin, Innovation Section Manager, at King County International Airport.