It started last May 18, after the green light from Ispra and theRegional Department of Environmental Defense, the new control and sampling plan dedicated to the Hooded Crow in the territories ofOristano for the 2022 season. The green light for the start of the activities, which will end at the end of September, was given by the Province, a body very active in the training of the brothers and which over the years has shown particular sensitivity to the numerous reports on damage to crops In light of the fact that the Hooded Crow has no particular natural predators, there are two ways of intervening provided by the containment plan: the birds can be captured with specific cages, to be then depopulated with particular procedures, or they can be knocked down out of the nests with firearms through the intervention of assistants contacted by the farmers themselves.
The plan, created to reduce damage to agricultural production, can now count on about 170 assistants, trained and authorized to intervene in collaboration with the structures of the Province that communicate the activities to the Forestry and Environmental Surveillance Corps and to the territorial Asl. The coadjutors will be able to operate every day, with a maximum of seasonal culls set at 5 thousand specimens, and with the obligation to record the interventions in specific forms. The use of the cages will also be allowed after the containment period at the end of September set substantially at the same time as the conclusion of agricultural crops in the open field. For the future training activities of the Brothers, in view of the next seasons of containment, several hundred applications are coming in these days which will soon be examined by the competent provincial offices. Confagricoltura Oristano.
"As a trade organization - explained the president of Confagricoltura Oristano e Sardegna, Paolo Mele - we have always urged the institutions to intervene to contain the populations of the Hooded Crow, which every year devastate our crops in the field with enormous damage to farms. Above all, the cultivation of melons, watermelons and tomatoes which once pecked by birds are no longer salable on the market. Precisely the Oristano area - continued Paolo Mele -, where an important part of the regional agricultural and fruit and vegetable production develops, is one of the most affected areas of the whole island.
In recognizing that the plan started in due time, which cannot be taken for granted if we take into account other critical issues in which action is taken with unacceptable delays like the case of grasshoppers, we can only hope that this is an important first step in view of future wildlife containment activities, in particular wild boar or various types of waterfowl. At the same time it would be important to prepare an intervention plan for the containment of protected species such as red deer, fallow deer and mouflons that in many areas of Sardinia have been invading the cultivated areas for years.
Specifically, in agreement with the competent institutional subjects, Confagricoltura once again shows its full willingness to find a solution also with the capture of these mammals to be used for the repopulation of the numerous protected areas on the island, and beyond. As a trade organization we have always been committed to preventing problems. The refreshments allocated by the Region for the wildlife damage they are negligible and if they arrive, always after the deadline, they never cover the actual damage suffered by agricultural enterprises ", concluded Paolo Mele (Sardinia Yesterday Today and Tomorrow).