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These buildings are for the birds
With activists and their exhibit of 2,500 carcasses in attendance, city unveils guidelines for bird-friendly towers
by Theresa Boyle
May 4, 2007
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/210356
On the day Toronto released new "bird-friendly" development guidelines, an animal rights group announced it recovered 5,461 birds – a record number – that had collided with buildings last year.
"It's extremely sad because it's very much preventable," Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone told a news conference yesterday.
Pantalone released a 42-page document, containing guidelines for architects and developers on how to design bird-friendly buildings.
Among the recommendations are using less reflective glass, covering windows with film to mute reflections, installing awnings and overhangs and installing lights in such as way as to reduce light pollution.
Pantalone said he'd like the guidelines to eventually become mandatory.
"I suspect that in a handful of years or so a lot of the green Toronto development standards are going to switch from the voluntary to the obligatory," he said.
The news conference was held in the rotunda of Metro Hall where the group FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program) had on exhibit 2,500 birds that had died last fall after flying into buildings.
More than 600 birds have been picked up so far this year.
"It's mind-boggling," said Michael Mesure, of FLAP, noting that many of the birds were collected around office buildings in the downtown core.
FLAP has been recovering birds since 1993 and every year the number goes up. In 1995, 4,690 birds were recovered.
Mesure said the growing number of FLAP volunteers only partially explains the increase.
"It's also because there are more structures out there for these birds to be colliding with. As urban sprawl continues, the issue is going to continue heightening if we don't nip it now," he said.
Of all the birds recovered, only 40 per cent are eventually released into the wild. About 4 per cent have to be euthanized and the remainder are dead at the time of recovery.
Of those released into the wild, many first spend time at the Toronto Wildlife Centre recovering from injuries.
"The most common form of trauma is head trauma," Mesure said, noting that brain hemorrhaging is the most common cause of death.
Other injuries include broken beaks and feather damage.
FLAP says it recovers only a small portion of birds killed after colliding with buildings in the city and estimates that number is 1 million annually.
Hitting buildings is "one of, if not the leading cause of bird decline across North America," Mesure said.
He said he was thrilled with the city's new guidelines, but said that in order for them to be widely adopted people will have to change their tastes.
"The challenge is that aesthetics are so important to people, to corporate and residential communities. ... We're used to glass that is shiny or clear or mirrored. Sadly, to deal with this problem we have to change our mindset," he said.
Steve Dupuis, chief executive officer of the recently merged Greater Toronto Home Builders' Association/Urban Development Institute, bristled at the idea of making the guidelines mandatory. Many developers are building greener products on their own accord and forcing them to do so isn't necessary, he said.
"There is a lot of frustration in the development and building industry right now. ... We're all getting greener but whatever the industry does (voluntarily) becomes the benchmark for mandating a program," he said.
"Does cost have any bearing on any decisions? ... It (would) be mandated at a level that's probably way beyond the market demand," he added.
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