A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), was signed Friday, September 20, between the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to establish a joint cooperative relationship between the three organizations to reduce the risk of wildlife hazards at airports. 
The MOU was signed by FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, NASAO’s Chairman,Tommy Booth, Mississippi Aviation Division Director and Kevin A. Shea, Administrator, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services. The signing was held in the FAA Administrator’s office. Others in attendance were Barry Cooper, FAA’s Great Lakes Regional Administrator, who serves as FAA’s liaison to NASAO, Christa Fornorato, FAA’s Associate Administrator for Airports and NASAO’s President and CEO, Henry Ogrodzinski.
(Signing the MOU are from left, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, USDA Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Kevin A. Shea and NASAO Chair, Tommy Booth from Mississippi. Photo courtesy of NASAO)
This new partnership builds on two previous MOUs from 2006 and 2010 and will seek ways to improve reporting of wildlife strike data at airports, educate the general aviation community, provide technical and operational assistance to the aviation community and research the most efficient and cost effective ways to mitigate wildlife risk at airports when neccessary.
