NDSU Researchers Accidentally Help Out Hector International Airport

Hector International Airport is getting a little bit of accidental help from NDSU for the next week.

In an attempt to protect their crops, researchers have inadvertently been cutting down on airborne hazards for landing planes.

Those hazards of course are birds and seeing as these fields have six figures of research money invested in them, there’s a good reason to keep them bird free.

But what do you do after the fake owls and bird scaring balloons stop working?

At NDSU they bring out the big guns or “boomers”.

These boomers use propane gas to create a loud well… boom to scare away any birds trying to make a meal out of the researcher’s hard work.

These things are incredibly loud.

That’s why Fargo Police Department is alerting people living near the NDSU crops if they hear something comparable to a shot gun blast early in the morning, not to worry.

“Just remember that sometimes we are doing some of these types of methods for saving some of the research we conduct here at NDSU,” says Researcher Andrew Friskop.

The location of the boomers appears to be causing another unexpected positive effect.

“You know when the Wright brothers flew way back in the early 1900’s obviously the birds were in the air before them. So man decided to get into the air and obviously we have to deal with those aviation hazards,” says Executive Director of Hector International Airport Shawn Dobberstein.

The researchers at NDSU say there’s a good chance their crop control is helping prevent the birds from getting in the way of landing planes.

“Obviously for them to alleviate that crop damage and then at the same time keep the birds away from the airport so I think it’s all good,” says Dobberstein.

The researchers say they hope to be done with the blasts by the end of next week.

The boomers are placed on 19th avenue North, just south of Hector International airport’s North–South Runway.