Life at the Landfill: Much More than Trash

Photo: The landfill’s “no mow” area, Glenda C. Booth

Glenda C. Booth
Originally printed in Connection Newspapers, September 11, 2024

As multi-ton garbage trucks roll in and out 24 hours a day to unload the never-ending detritus of modern life and mammoth forklifts rumble over the I-95 landfill at Lorton, just over the hill, a very different kind of life abounds.

Amid the crickets’ constant chirping, keen listeners may hear the tinkling call of a bobolink. Their fall call is “a repeated ink,” says the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Bobolinks are seven-inch-long birds that live and forage in tall grasses and winter in South America.

Bobolinks migrate through Northern Virginia in the spring and fall and are “very rare in the eastern United States,” says Greg Butcher, retired U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist. Why are these birds at the landfill? Bobolinks prefer grasslands, a rare and diminishing habitat. Grassland acreage in Virginia may be less than .0001 percent what it was pre-colonization, according to Justin Folks, Natural Resources Conservation Service. “The eastern United States has lost 99 percent of its grassland since European settlement,” notes Butcher. 

The landfill’s “no mow” area, Glenda C. Booth

No Mow

This year, managers designated 50 acres of the 500-acre landfill as a “no-mow” zone, as directed in February by the Board of Supervisors and recommended by the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance. The goal is to avoid mowing during grassland birds’ spring and early summer nesting season. This area has not been mowed since September 2023. By letting the grasses grow, managers have in effect created a grassland. Butcher comments, “I’ve spent a lot of time and energy working with the people at the landfill because it has the largest patch of grassland in eastern Fairfax County.”

Grassland birds are “among the fastest-declining bird species in the U.S., with a 34 percent loss since 1970,” a National Audubon Society 2022 report concluded. “The landfill supports populations of five key eastern grassland bird species,” Butcher reports.

Preparing a Plan

Blair Evancho, a May college graduate and county intern, and Carlos Leiva, a county employee, are conducting bird surveys, especially identifying birds that are “regionally rare and specialize in grasslands,” explains Evancho. “This habitat supports species that are not supported elsewhere.”

In other words, the point is not just the total number of birds or species, but documenting birds not typically found in other area habitats. Other grassland birds they have seen include Eastern meadowlarks, grasshopper sparrows and dickcissels. Butcher calls the dickcissel “a Midwestern bird.”

The landfill is in fact an Ebird hotspot, with at least 126 species identified over the last 15 years, most not grassland birds. On September 5, vultures soared and crows called. Observers spotted Eastern phoebes and American kestrels. On July 31, Butcher confirmed 13 species, including wild turkeys, common ravens and chimney swifts.

On September 5, the no-mow area was alive with insects, including butterflies (monarchs, cloudless sulfur, cabbage and tiger and black swallowtail), beetles, bees and dragonflies. “There are grasshoppers everywhere,” Evancho observed.

Grassland flowers, Glenda C. Booth

The area has a mix of wildflowers, native grasses and lespedeza. Bright yellow bearded beggar tick and Queen Anne’s lace plants punctuated the landscape as fox tail grasses swayed in the breeze. Bull thistles were shedding their seeds. Goldfinches use these seeds for building nests in August, said Butcher. “This is when seeds are available.”

Fairfax County official Eric Forbes touts the county’s “sustainability-minded management.” 

“We planted our first native meadows at the site in 2016 for pollinators and wildlife, now we are managing traditionally mowed turf areas to allow for grassland bird nesting,” Forbes says. “Hopefully we can show that altering our mowing schedule will allow native birds to breed, setting an example that helps our department’s sustainable community goal and meets our environmental compliance requirements for landfill management. This project can change how landfill operators and regulators manage mowed turf areas to allow for harmony with native bird species and other critical wildlife.” Forbes is Deputy Director, Solid Waste Management Program of the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services.

Evancho will analyze his data and prepare management protocols for the 50 acres. The Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes recommends February 15 to April 1 as the “optimal time for field management” to protect breeding and nesting grassland birds.

Meanwhile, this part of the landfill is becoming a rare and rich grassland.

Methane Flaring – A Hidden Killer for Birds of Prey

Photo: Red-tailed Hawk, Kristen Cart/Audubon Photography Awards

By Jessica Bigger

As some landfills pile up with trash, building excessive amounts of methane, carbon dioxide (CO2), and other greenhouse gases, some landfill owners have installed methane gas burners to reduce the amount of methane entering the atmosphere. However, the downside to methane flaring is that the flame is colorless and fatal for birds flying in the area, especially birds of prey.

Methane gas is one of the major greenhouse gases causing the planet to warm; more so than Carbon Dioxide. (CO2) So, by burning off methane, the gas is converted to a CO2, and other minor greenhouse gases that aren’t as harmful to the atmosphere.

Trash produces 50% methane, 50% CO2, and a small percentage of other gases that enter into the atmosphere, which is why flaring has been used to help reduce the amount of methane gas from entering the atmosphere.

Many landfills are near telephone poles and other tall structures, where hawks and falcons sit. So, when a hawk takes flight near a garbage dump, it may fly too close to the colorless flame, not feeling the heat until it’s too late. Wildlife monitors and rescuers have found numerous birds of prey singed by these flames. In most cases the burns are fatal.

Some garbage dump owners have worked with wildlife advocates to find solutions to the problem. A few have put cages around their methane burners so the birds can see the cage and avoid the methane flare stack. Unfortunately, the winds from a major storm can knock over the cage. This happened at the Kingsland Landfill in New Jersey; it took a while for the cage to be repaired. One way to solve this problem is for owners to check the burner after a storm and fix the cage immediately if it has been damaged. 

Although there are some landfill owners willing to mitigate the situation, many are unlikely to install a cage. The cost of installing and maintaining the cage may be one of the reasons many landfill owners choose not to install one. 

Wildlife experts have also suggested other solutions, like burying electrical lines so birds can’t perch on telephone poles near landfills, or building taller structures so birds can lift off well above the burners. 

In many cases these solutions require cooperation from landowners, but also commitments from local government. As in many situations, even though the changes seem impossible, many conservationist and bird advocates will continue to reach out to landfill owners and local government officials to find a win-win solution for owners and birds of prey.

Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/11/methane-flares-scorching-birds-us-landfills/ 
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/methane-gas-from-landfills-burns-and-injures-birds/
https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/44736/20201123/methane-gas-flares-scorch-owls-hawks-waste-landfills.htm