Wildlife hazard assessment for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

We examined wildlife abundance, distribution, and movement patterns at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) and within an 8-km radius to assess current air-strike hazards, and to provide baseline information for projecting changes in air-strike hazards as land-use patterns around PHX change. We found that water sources at or near PHX especially induced wildlife movement patterns that put air traffic at risk. This was particularly true of the Salt River bed adjacent to the airport, which also is a natural flight corridor for birds. Compounding the problem, air traffic at PHX was the heaviest when bird abundance and activity was the greatest during migration and breeding. We feel that air strike hazards at PHX are likely to increase substantially as the Salt River bed is reclaimed to produce additional lakes and high quality riparian habitat. We offer recommendations to reduce the hazard levels currently found at PHX and to reduce additional hazards as the habitat around PHX is converted and produces more attractive wildlife habitat.