UTRECHT – De Fakkel primary school in the Utrecht Tuinwijk wants to cut down eight trees because of serious nuisance from starlings. According to the school, the bird droppings “create health risks for students and also cause odor nuisance, both outside and in the building”.
There have been many complaints about the situation in the schoolyard for some time now. On the Municipality’s Slim Melden app, many residents call the thick layer of bird droppings “very unsafe and unhealthy”.
“Enormous stench and filth of bird droppings between De Fakkel and the Dr. Bosschool. My son’s bicycle is filthy every day and it considerably limits playing in the square for all children,” writes one parent. Another: “Very unsafe and unhealthy situation! Something needs to be done urgently. Starlings in the trees, thick layer of bird droppings around the school where small children play every day. Bird droppings must be removed as soon as possible and there must be a solution for the long term.”
Animal-friendly measures
The adjacent Dr. Bosschool also suffers from starling poo in the schoolyard. “We have been away for a year to a temporary location,” says De Fakkel director Iris Hekkert. “In the meantime, we’ve tried animal-friendly ways, such as placing lights by a conservation company.”
It just turned out not to be that easy. “We then found out that you should not chase starlings once they are there. Around this time they should return to Scandinavia, so we have to prevent them from settling here again next year.”
Bad example
De Fakkel primary school now opts for the most drastic solution: felling without replanting. The Utrecht party of the Party for the Animals is not happy about this. “A very bad example for the students, that’s not how you treat trees,” the party wrote on Twitter.
Director Hekkert emphasizes that cutting down is not the goal in itself. “We want a long-term solution. If you’re not here, it’s hard to imagine, but it really stinks. If there’s another way than felling: I’d love to. But we don’t want that nuisance anymore.”
The issue even reached the mayor of Utrecht Sharon Dijksma, who two days ago visited primary school De Fakkel in connection with the Week of Spring Jitters. She was asked by the students whether she could do anything about the nuisance of the colony of starlings, she writes in a message on Instagram.