Appleton vows to make its windows more bird safe, encourages others to do the same

APPLETON - Alex Schultz was working downtown when he witnessed two pine warblers smack into the glass windows on the back of the ACOCA Coffee shop.

One warbler survived. One didn't.

"They just thought it was more sky," Schultz said of the reflections on the panes of glass. "It was a little bit shocking to see."

Schultz said he particularly was bothered because the collisions involved "cute little pine warblers," which are relatively uncommon in the city.

As a member of the Appleton Common Council, Schultz asked himself what could be done to prevent further songbird deaths. He noted Appleton is affiliated with Bird City Wisconsin.

Resolution calls for two-pronged approach

Schultz's efforts led to a bird-safe glass resolution asking that Appleton:

• Identify all public buildings with glass panes at heights and of surface areas that pose a danger for birds and then apply glass safety films or other bird-strike abatement measures "as soon as practical and within budget and staffing constraints."

• Include educational language on its website to inform nonpublic entities, businesses and urban residential housing managers and owners whose buildings have glass panes that meet the bird-strike risk criteria of Bird City’s recommendations.

As many as a billion birds die annually in the U.S. after colliding with windows, according to the Save Our Songbirds campaign.

"It can happen anywhere," Schultz said. "It's glass of a size that's reflective enough where it deceives the birds into believing that they're flying into an open airspace."

The resolution passed the Community & Economic Development Committee on a 4-0 vote last week. The Appleton council will consider it this week.

How many public buildings meet the criteria?

According to a spreadsheet prepared by city staff, Appleton has four public buildings that meet the criteria for bird-strike abatement measures: City Hall (first, fifth and sixth floors of City Center Plaza), the new Appleton Public Library, the Yellow Parking Ramp and the water treatment plant.

"It's not a huge number of buildings, and I think the cost would not be significant," Schultz said.

The window treatments can be films with a dot pattern to break up reflections, he said, or they can be as simple as placing stickers on windows.

"There's a lot more buildings in the private sphere that have a lot more glass than anything the city has," Schultz said, "but the city's got to show a little leadership and do some things to bring about a little awareness."

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Resolution authors initially sought stronger action

Schultz initially proposed a much stronger approach with his resolution, which was co-signed by council members Israel Del Toro and Vered Meltzer.

The resolution stated that Madison adopted a bird-friendly ordinance in 2020 that requires large construction and expansion projects to use bird-safe strategies and materials, and it called upon Appleton to do the same.

Appleton City Attorney Chris Behrens said Madison's ordinance faces legal challenges that have advanced to the District 4 Court of Appeals.

"One challenge is that imposing glass requirements such as these is not statutorily permissible," Behrens said in a memorandum. "Cities are prohibited from adopting a local-specific commercial building code, unless it is in strict conformity with the statewide code."

Behrens recommended Appleton wait on considering anything similar to Madison until the legality is decided.

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Development committee settles on a compromise

Members of the Community & Economic Development Committee debated tabling the resolution.

Council member Denise Fenton said she was concerned that the bird-friendly glass requirements might raise the cost of new construction and make developers hesitant to pursue projects in Appleton.

In the end, the committee amended the resolution to make the provisions a recommendation, rather than a requirement, for the private sector.

The compromise was "acceptable and pretty admirable," Fenton said.

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Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton bird-safe glass resolution heads to Common Council