Source:  Reggie Ponder, THE DAILY ADVANCE, 11/17/09

The Navy has announced plans to conduct an additional waterfowl study at a proposed Camden County site for a practice jet landing field. But opponents of the Outlying Landing Field question whether additional study is necessary. “We trust the Navy’s purpose isn’t to seek different results from a previous year’s study which were in our estimation not favorable to an OLF in Camden,” Camden County Attorney John Morrison said in a statement released this week by French-West Vaughan, a Raleigh-based public relations firm. “We fully expect them to reveal the findings of both studies.” The Navy announced it will collect additional data on waterfowl over-wintering at Hales Lake in the coming months. Of the five potential OLF sites that have been identified by the Navy, Hales Lake is the only location with a significant waterfowl population, according to the Navy’s previous studies.

Waterfowl — especially larger birds such as geese — are both an environmental concern in selecting an OLF site and a potential hazard for aircraft. Patsy Kerr, who works on environmental issues at the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, explained the first over-wintering study was conducted last winter from December to February. “This provides additional data,” Kerr said. “We just have an opportunity so we’re taking advantage of that.” It’s always good to have more than one year of data, Kerr said. She added that environmental regulators prefer to have as much data as possible included in an environmental impact study.