Open landfills serve as an attractant to birds, with increasing risk of bir
d-plane collisions. Managers are searching for methods to allow landfilling
while reducing potential bird problems near airports. Some municipalities
are considering nighttime landfilling as an avian deterrent, particularly w
here waste management facilities are located near airports. The objective o
f this report was to evaluate whether nighttime landfilling will result in
increased risk to aircraft from birds at the Atlantic County Airport in coa
stal New Jersey. The risk to nearby aircraft from nighttime landfill is a f
unction of (1) attractiveness of landfills, airports, or other habitats, (2
) nocturnal behavior of gulfs and other birds, (3) elevations and flight pa
ths of birds, (4) changes in population levels of gulls and other potential
ly hazardous birds, and (5) harassment techniques that can deter birds from
the landfills, adjacent habitat, and airports. The latter, however, can se
rve to move birds to locations or attitudes that pose an even greater risk
to aircraft. The number of strikes is generally increasing. While most air
strikes occur during the day at the Atlantic County Airport, over 12% occur
at night and nearly 20% occur at dawn when any garbage remaining from nigh
ttime landfilling would be an attractant. The peak of strikes occurs in the
early fall, when young birds are learning to forage. Risk data suggests th
at gulls and a wide variety of other birds are active at night, and if any
garbage is available they will be attracted, increasing the risk to aircraf
t landing at night. Some actual night dumping has been carried out since Oc
tober 3 1997 without apparently attracting gulls, suggesting that careful o
perations with appropriate institutional controls can make nighttime dumpin
g feasible.