Bird Strike Committee-USA (BSC-USA) 

 Conferences — Every year, lives are 

 endangered worldwide and billions of dollars 

 are wasted when birds and other wildlife 

 damage aircraft. BSC-USA was formed to 

 meet this challenge by providing a forum for 

 increasing communication and professional- 

 ism among the diverse groups addressing 

 wildlife issues at airports. 



WS biologists helped plan a joint conference 

 between BSC-USA and BSC-Canada that was 

 held in Vancouver, BC, in May 1999. The 

 conference was attended by 250 military and 

 civilian air field operators, Federal Aviation 

 Administration (FAA) airport inspectors, 

 wildlife and land-use planners, university 

 researchers, engineers, pilots, and aviation 

 industry representatives. In all, 40 technical 

 papers were presented on topics related to 

 reducing wildlife collisions with aircraft. 



Investing in Our Employees 



Three WS employees completed the APHIS 

 Leadership for Today and Tomorrow program. 

 This intensive 18-month program provides 

 participants with the tools to take positive 

 leadership action and make improvements in 

 the overall performance and effectiveness of 

 the organization. Participants were also 

 encouraged to take responsibility for leading 

 change. 



The WS Leadership Excellence Program II was 

 initiated in September 1999. The goal of this 

 program is to build on leadership potential 

 and enhance leadership skills of midlevel 

 employees. Nineteen employees from different 

 WS units are participating in the program, 

 which consists of four weeklong training 



workshops plus a variety of individualized 

 developmental assignments and activities. 

 Participants will complete an action learning 

 project on a current WS leadership issue and a 

 30- to 60-day developmental assignment to 

 strengthen and use targeted leadership skills 

 before graduating in March 2000. 



The WS program in Utah, with assistance from 

 the western regional office, continued to 

 support a graduate student position in wildlife 

 science at Utah State University. This ongoing 

 position is designed for current WS employees 

 and provides both graduate-level education 

 and exposure to various wildlife damage 

 management issues and strategies. 



WS biologists also served on the BSC-USA 

 Steering Committee and assisted with the 

 planning for a second U.S-Canadian 

 conference scheduled for Minneapolis, MN, in 

 August 2000. This conference will feature a 

 strike-reduction training session, field 

 demonstrations on wildlife hazard manage- 

 ment techniques, new technologies, and 

 habitat management. 



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