ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 5, 1997 TAG: 9703050073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: LEESBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press
A plan to trap and relocate hundreds of vultures that have scattered droppings and decayed leftovers around town has ruffled feathers elsewhere in Virginia where the birds might go.
Leesburg officials have received angry calls and letters from communities in rural southern Virginia since the Town Council approved a plan last week to move the vultures at least 200 miles away.
``We have our own buzzards, so we don't need any more,'' said Lawrenceville Mayor Keith W. Clarke, whose community near the North Carolina border felt threatened by the relocation effort. ``We don't want someone else's problems shipped down here.''
Leesburg's effort to get rid of the vultures comes after six years of using air horns, balloons, firecrackers and even cannons to drive away the birds, which appear about Halloween and stay until mid-March. The population has grown to about 1,000 birds, according to town officials.
The removal plan, proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, involves setting up a trap, baiting it with dead deer or other road kill and waiting for the vultures to appear. The birds then would be caged and taken somewhere.
Because some birds already have left this year, town officials said, the birds won't be trapped until fall when they return for another winter.
Martin Lowney, the Agriculture Department official in charge of carrying out the plan, initially described the drop-off place as somewhere in rural southern Virginia.
Clarke said Lowney's description ``fit us to a tee.''
Lowney couldn't be reached Tuesday for comment. But Leesburg officials said they talked to Lowney about the complaints and were assured the birds won't go to Clarke's community.
``The USDA said they have no intention of taking them to that area,'' said Gary Huff, Leesburg's deputy town manager. ``It'll be somewhere west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, but they haven't identified where - and we're not asking.''
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