Geese, ducks, swallows and deer, along with a host of other wildlife, have something in common, according to the Missouri Air National Guard.

“They can all become hazards to aircraft and cause expensive problems,” said Lt. Col. Kris Pankau, safety officer for the 139th Airlift Wing.

In the last fiscal year, the Wing forked out about $192,000 in repairs because of avian and wildlife accidents, Mr. Pankau said.

According to reports filed at Rosecrans, an Arkansas Air National Guard plane was on a mission in 2007 while attending classes at the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center when the plane hit a flock of ducks that did real damage to an aircraft wing

Last year appears to be an anomaly in a decade of focused record keeping. So far this year, there has been one incident with a goose that caused about $3,000 in damage, Mr. Pankau said.

The airlift wing averages about eight unavoidable incidents a year, he said.

Both the military and city of St. Joseph personnel routinely collect samples from bird strikes and send them to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington for identification, said Mike Hurst, the city’s airport manager. The Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and civilian agencies try to coordinate their efforts.

That’s because the Guard has to know what kind of birds are striking aircraft if they are going to develop the right kind of mitigation efforts, Mr. Pankau said. The Airlift Wing has been keeping detailed records for years because the Guard understands that mishaps can occur when there is complacency and/or ignorance, he said.

The Air Force has an aggressive mitigation program that works to reduce and eliminate costly accidents with birds and other wildlife.

Russell DeFusco, vice president of BASH Inc. and a consultant to the Air Force’s Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard program, visited St. Joseph at the end of June to work with the Missouri Air National Guard and the city’s airport staff. Mr. DeFusco, who has a specialized biology Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, reviewed the efforts by both civilian and military teams at Rosecrans to work with habitat management, population control, bird dispersal methods, forecasting, operational planning for bird avoidance, accident prevention, reports and investigations.

Sometime in August, he will send a report with any recommendations for improvements.

Mr. Hurst and Mr. Pankau expect the report to address the need for a wildlife barrier at Rosecrans. The two men hope the report also will strongly condemn a proposal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create a wildlife management area on the south side of U.S. Highway 36 and Elwood, Kan.

This wildlife area would be within five miles of the airport. It has the potential to create serious hazards for aircraft landing and taking off, Mr. Pankau said.

Marshall White can be reached

at marshall@npgco.com.