Farmers now required to have a license for 'bird bangers'

WHITSTRAN, Wash. -- Brad Klingele would trust his 13-year-old son to use his bird-scaring gun in the cherry orchard.

But to pack the noise-making gun, which looks more like a toy, Klingele will have to get a federal license and provide his fingerprints and photo identification.

To keep explosives out of the "wrong hands," the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is now requiring farmers who use them to get a license.

ATF gave the contraptions an acronym -- EPCD, for explosive pest control devices -- though farmers typically call them bird bangers, shell crackers or other variations of trade names.

Whatever they're called, many who use the guns to protect their fruit are not happy about the additional regulation.

"It's a joke," said Joe Perry, CEO of Wilson Orchard and Vineyard Supply in Yakima. "You can quote me on that if you want."

The regulation also requires a criminal background check and mandates that users keep the gunpowder-packed cartridges locked inside a flame-proof vault, where they must be signed out for every use. Penalties for violating what is a federal law are as high as 10 years in prison.

Retailers have had to comply with the regulations since 2002, when Congress passed the Safe Explosives Act. Technically, end-users such as farmers have had to comply, too, but the ATF has not enforced it.

That is supposed to change today, although it's unclear exactly how the regulation will be enforced.

The agency sent out a letter in November to all current license holders, such as distributors and retailers, to remind them of the rules and the enforcement deadline.

ATF officials said the bird-scarers are not always as harmless as they seem. The U.S. Bomb Data Center reported 11 criminal incidents involving pest control devices in 2009.

"ATF must weigh the potential threat to public safety from illicit storage and use of these devices against the needs of legitimate end users. Items that may appear harmless cease to be so in the wrong hands," said Scot Thomasson, chief of the ATF Public Affairs Division.

Growers: We had no notice

Applying for and getting approval for a license can take up to 90 days. By then, the cherries will be ripe. Growers without a license who use their existing supplies to keep birds at bay will technically be in violation.

"It's going to be more than just inconvenient, it's going to be a little bit scary," said Keith Klingele, Brad's brother and a fellow fruit grower. "It's going to take longer than we have before harvest starts."

Growers and retailers alike complain the ATF did not inform industry associations or do any outreach at winter conferences where growers typically get updates on state and federal rules.

The Washington State Fruit Commission, which publishes the Good Fruit Grower, never received a news release, said B.J. Thurlby, its president. Keith and Brad Klingele first heard about the regulations when they were asked for comment by the Yakima Herald-Republic.

To spread the word, vendors such as Wilson and Bleyhl Farm Service in Grandview have posted copies of memos from the ATF and have instructed their sales representatives to notify customers. Wilson actually set up an application office last week, offering fingerprints and photos.

Mike Clark, projects manager for Yakima Valley Orchards, was among those applying for a license. He had planned to send more workers to do the same. He said the requirement is a hassle, but not a big problem.

"It's just more government BS," he said.

Marty Aguilar, manager of Bleyhl's flagship store in Grandview, said growers have been telling him they will just use something else, perhaps a shotgun.

That will hurt business. His store typically sells 1,400 cases of cartridges a year, virtually all of them in May and June. They cost anywhere from $35 to $65.

"I think it's really silly," Aguilar said. "It's getting blown out of proportion."

Klingele's pistol, smaller than his hand, fires a cartridge about the size of a AA battery roughly 100 feet in the air, where it whistles like something from the Fourth of July.

Other models end with a loud bang resonating over the tree canopy, which hopefully scares away starlings, crows and other feathered fiends pilfering cherries off branches at his family's CJ Orchards in this unincorporated community northeast of Prosser.

The guns are one of many tools that orchardists use to shoo birds away from their crops. Elsewhere in the Yakima Valley, plastic bobble-head owls perch on posts, shiny Mylar strips hang from trees like Christmas tinsel and kites soar above orchards, supposedly mimicking a reflective hawk.

"Basically, birds get used to anything you do," Klingele said.

Growers like the little guns because farmhands can easily carry them around and actually surprise a flock of starlings. Vineyard managers also find them handy. Wildlife officials, airport workers and golf course employees use them, too.

Brad Klingele, though frustrated, puts this latest inconvenience into perspective. He has upcoming changes in food safety rules, constantly shifting environmental requirements and poor weather this spring to deal with.

Besides, he has other techniques to scare birds. He rounds out his arsenal with propane sound cannons, electronic squawk boxes and a grape concentrate spray that for some reason makes birds sick when it combines with cherries in their stomachs.

"We got a lot of issues ... this is just one more," he said.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.