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Meet The Man Who Shoots At Birds All Day To Keep Them Off A Toxic Pit | World Wide Waste - YouTube
Channel: Business Insider
[1]
[Music]
[2]
every round in this rifle
[6]
could save a bird's life
[8]
[Music]
[10]
the splash of the bullet scares
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migrating species off this mile-long
[14]
toxic lake in montana
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if birds land there for more than a few
[21]
hours
[22]
the acidic water cooks them from the
[24]
inside out
[27]
[Music]
[29]
it's mark mariano's mission to make sure
[31]
that doesn't happen
[33]
yeah mark mariano
[35]
waterfowl protection specialist
[37]
we invented that title
[39]
but it fits
[42]
he uses a multi-million dollar arsenal
[44]
of high-tech tools to keep birds off of
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what used to be a copper mine in butte
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montana
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this is the one everybody likes to see
[52]
though
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do you get to fly the drone after they
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no no
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what's now a toxic bird bath started out
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as an open pit mine 65 years ago
[66]
but in 1982 the company that owned the
[68]
mine shut down the water pumps
[71]
groundwater started to seep in creating
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sulfuric acid that leached metals out of
[76]
the rock
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people have been chewing birds off the
[79]
berkeley pit ever since
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and some of the methods they've
[84]
developed here could help protect the
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estimated hundreds of millions of birds
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killed by industrial activity every year
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snow geese
[98]
avocets
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and grebes
[104]
are just a few of the species that stop
[105]
in butte on their journey north and
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spring and south in fall
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and mark loves them all
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your widgeon
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i mean i dream sleep
[118]
eat and
[119]
poop you know ducks
[124]
we obviously went over the top of the
[126]
wildlife decor
[127]
[Music]
[129]
my mom bought me this one and i told her
[130]
it was stupid and now i love it
[136]
but the sounds that repel birds are more
[139]
unnatural so we're gonna move it over
[141]
there it goes always when you're trying
[142]
to talk
[144]
the first line of defense is four
[146]
so-called whalers
[148]
they randomly play a series of alarms to
[150]
annoy the birds you can hear these
[152]
things on a nice warm summer night all
[154]
across butte and propane cannons hooked
[157]
up to timers
[160]
fire all day they mimic gunfire which a
[164]
lot of the
[165]
birds are scared of for obvious reasons
[168]
on special occasions the birds might get
[170]
their own private fireworks display this
[173]
is a kind of a last resort or we know
[175]
you know something big would be coming
[177]
we've used them twice one of mark's
[179]
favorite tools is meant for spotting the
[181]
birds before they get wet it's a five
[184]
thousand dollar swarovski scope but
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after nearly four years on the job he
[188]
can usually spot them with the naked eye
[190]
can you see him
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no
[194]
i'm gonna keep laying on him because if
[195]
we can get keep them from landing that's
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always the best
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[Music]
[200]
hq is this small hut
[202]
along the same ridge where the mines
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dispatch are used to direct trucks
[207]
[Music]
[209]
they call it
[210]
the bird shack we've discussed renaming
[213]
it something more professional sounding
[215]
than bird jack but it's become such kind
[217]
of a colloquial
[219]
term that we kept it
[221]
during peak season someone like mark
[223]
comes up here every hour to do what they
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call hazing
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that's the technical term for annoying
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birds that land on the pit so they fly
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away we got a group coming in one two
[234]
three four five it looks like more
[236]
showers
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so there's 33
[241]
2 3 43.
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when they first started scaring off
[245]
birds 30 years ago their only tools were
[248]
a rifle and a clipboard
[251]
they didn't even have heat during the
[252]
long montana winters
[254]
for the most part it worked
[257]
even if the miners records looked like a
[259]
real life game of duck duck goose
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[Music]
[264]
that changed in 2016.
[268]
snow geese migrate through montana every
[270]
year but that november an estimated 60
[274]
thousand of them landed on the pit
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essentially the entire snow goose
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population of our flyway came overnight
[284]
hit a nasty storm and ended up using the
[287]
worst rest stop that they possibly could
[292]
this could be myth now you know but they
[294]
shot the gun so many times the barrel
[297]
like essentially curved because it got
[299]
too hot
[301]
about 3 000 birds died in a matter of
[304]
days according to the u.s fish and
[306]
wildlife service
[310]
guys choke up when they you know you
[311]
know burly mine are talking about coming
[313]
out here and seeing you know
[316]
thousands of snow geese on there
[318]
after that the companies working to
[320]
clean up the pit brought in experts to
[323]
devise a more scientific approach
[327]
the researchers discovered that the pit
[329]
attracts over 50 bird species not just
[332]
ducks and geese
[334]
the companies invested hundreds of
[336]
thousands of dollars into fancy
[338]
high-tech tools but many didn't work
[342]
it turns out that each kind of bird
[344]
responds differently
[345]
with each of the technologies as well as
[347]
the simple stuff a combo of them can
[349]
help sometimes
[351]
and then usually one will pick up where
[352]
the other leaves off
[356]
the aerial drone is most effective when
[358]
birds land on ice or the shore where
[361]
there's a risk a bullet could ricochet
[364]
mark's high-powered laser works well on
[366]
american coots and other species that
[368]
like to migrate at night
[370]
in 2016 they custom-built drones just
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for the pit
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early prototypes combined 3d printed
[376]
parts with boogie boards and kid-sized
[379]
kayaks
[383]
so they're at your
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10 o'clock
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today technicians use a remote control
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to operate what they call the water dog
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here's the group
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that probably went out of your view to
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the left a little bit now sometimes the
[397]
boat gets the birds to lift off
[400]
then a rifle shot
[402]
gets them to fly away
[404]
this new and improved suite of tools has
[407]
a near perfect record of keeping birds
[409]
off this deadly human-made mess
[414]
successful programs like the one at the
[416]
pit are more important than ever
[419]
nearly a third of north america's bird
[421]
population has disappeared since 1970.
[427]
mining is to blame for destroying
[429]
habitat but some cleanup efforts have
[431]
worked just not always in the way people
[434]
expect for a prime example of that you
[437]
need to travel about 20 miles downstream
[442]
every year hundreds of thousands of
[444]
birds stop here
[445]
the warm springs wildlife management
[447]
area
[448]
it's where researchers stella kapocia
[450]
and gary swan come to count birds oh
[453]
we've got some american absolutes
[456]
these scientists helped designed the
[457]
pit's upgraded protection program
[460]
the reports that we do here on mondays
[463]
and wednesdays are posted in the bird
[465]
shack so these uh miners have a good
[468]
predictive instrument of what might be
[471]
in the pit
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there's a cinnamon teal that
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you probably haven't seen one of those
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yet this year during peak season gary's
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grandson also helps with the count we'll
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usually peek at like 50 000 60 000 birds
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in the valley and those are long days
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those are like 10 hour days
[489]
the team comes to warm springs because
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it's a bio-diverse haven that has hosted
[493]
more than half of montana's bird species
[497]
but just like the berkeley pit it was
[499]
created by humans
[502]
this is a constructed area that
[504]
now has then turned into
[508]
a preserve for the wildlife
[510]
[Music]
[512]
in 1908 a flood washed mining waste from
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butte into local waterways
[517]
it killed fish and made the water unsafe
[520]
for humans
[523]
after that catastrophe
[525]
these ponds were built so that hard
[527]
metals could seep out of the water
[528]
before they run downstream
[532]
giant hoppers neutralize the water with
[534]
lime
[535]
that keeps things clean and safe enough
[537]
for wildlife
[540]
so the event happened in a single month
[542]
in 1908
[544]
and here we are still getting it cleaned
[546]
up
[549]
feels wonderful
[551]
because we can
[553]
correct the problems of the past
[556]
experts caution that it's impossible to
[558]
erase over a hundred years of mining
[560]
pollution
[562]
but with people like gary stella and
[564]
mark on the job the future for montana's
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birds might be looking up
[569]
but not if you're a wild turkey
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i'm by no means
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a seasoned turkey hunter so this is my
[577]
very first
[579]
but we saved everything
[581]
mark takes pride in not letting anything
[583]
go to waste
[585]
i made it real traditional like a
[586]
chicken noodle soup it's even
[588]
gluten-free if you can believe that
[591]
has anyone ever pointed out to you the
[593]
irony of the fact that your entire job
[595]
is to keep wild birds safe and you go
[597]
hunting i'm a big waterfowl hunter as
[599]
well and what that has taught me about
[602]
protecting the waterfowl at the pit is
[604]
just priceless
[606]
i wake up without an alarm every morning
[608]
and i'm you know happy to go
[610]
you know literally rescue birds
[613]
and most days you walk home you know
[615]
with your head held high
[619]
[Music]
[636]
bye
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