Caltrans touts efforts to protect swallows at Petaluma bridge

Wildlife advocates expressed optimism Thursday over promises that the last phase of construction of the Highway 101 bridge over the Petaluma River would not harm or adversely affect a colony of cliff swallows that has been nesting in the area for decades.

During an afternoon news conference near the construction site, Caltrans officials said there would be only “limited construction” in bird nesting areas, work that should be completed by the end of March. The conference, which brought Caltrans and wildlife representatives together, was organized by State Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael.

The swallows, which have begun their spring nesting after migrating 6,000 miles from South America, would be excluded from constructing their nests on the west side of the bridge and the temporary platform needed to complete the work. Caltrans will prevent the swallows from constructing nests by “scraping and washing off nest starts.”

“By the end of March, we anticipate leaving the entire bridge open to nesting,” said Robert Atanasio, chief biologist for Caltrans.

Atanasio said the new $130 million bridge, part of an ongoing Highway 101 widening project, should be completed by fall. He said the exclusion methods being used are the same one used last year, and that no swallows have been harmed in the past 2½ years of bridge construction.

Last year, several hundred nests were removed after they became “inactive” and the nesting season had ended sometime in August, Atanasio said. The swallows use mud, as many as 1,000 pieces, to build their gourd-like nests on portions of the bridge that resemble cliffs and rock outcroppings.

Ariana Rickard, network manager of the Audubon California’s coastal chapter, said both male and female swallows work in tandem to build their nest, completing them in about seven days.

“The finished product is very much a work of art,” Rickard said, adding that prior to bridge construction the colony that settled in the vicinity of the bridge numbered about 3,000 individual birds.

There was a spirit of cooperation between Caltrans and wildlife advocates during Thursday’s conference. But it wasn’t always like that.

In the spring of 2013, Veronica Bowers, executive director of Native Songbird Care & Conservation, said she first noticed that Caltrans’ efforts to abide by federal and state laws aimed at protecting the swallows were inadequate and cost the lives of many birds. She noticed that birds were becoming trapped and dying in netting that was being used by Caltrans to keep the birds from nesting.

She said efforts to get Caltrans to use other nesting exclusion techniques were at first ignored.

In May 2013, a coalition of environmental groups and animal activists sued Caltrans.

Advocates called on Levine to intercede and a settlement was brokered by December 2013.

Caltrans is currently trying to prevent the birds from nesting in active construction zones by erecting plastic sheeting and hand-scraping or pressure- washing to remove the beginnings of nests.

Asked if she was satisfied by Caltrans’ current efforts to protect the migrating birds, Bowers said, “I remain cautiously optimistic.”