STEWART AIRPORT – In the wake of the recent bird strike which brought down a commercial airliner in Manhattan, the Stewart Commission expressed concern about the potential for bird incidents from birds living in the adjacent Stewart State Forest.

Those fears were allayed Tuesday as William Janeway, state Environmental Conservation Department regional director, told the commission his agency is doing all that it can to prevent that from happening.

“We do manage those lands and manage them with the safety of people as the top priority making sure there is no conflict with operations here at the airport,” he said. “We do take a look at the FAA list in terms of potential species issues and compare the top 30 on that list against the species that DEC managements for in the grassland and forests and there is absolutely zero conflict between the species that we manage for and those top 30 species on the FAA list.”

The top three threats to aircraft at an airport are deer, vultures and Canada geese. The deer issue at Stewart is continually being addressed and Canada geese that might venture onto the airport are coming from nearby off-airport areas.

Janeway said they typically use pop guns to scare them away, but will use lethal force if necessary.