A dispute over bird droppings has found its way onto the ballot in Rye.
After months of pecking and clawing between advocates who want to unlock the windows at Goss Farm barn, where a colony of barn swallows has summered for decades, and those who say the birds need to find a new home, the town will now hold a special meeting.
In the 403 years since its founding, it isn’t clear if Rye voters have ever faced such a choice.
[Editor’s note: you can read our previous coverage of this issue here]
Supporters of letting the swallows inside the structure submitted enough signatures to place a “bird conservation ordinance” on the ballot. The measure, if passed, would force the town to protect migratory bird colonies such as barn swallows. In practice, that means opening the windows to the few dozen birds who arrive each year in late April from central and South America.
Earlier this year, the town’s Conservation Commission voted to keep the barn windows closed, citing, well, bird poop. In the past, volunteers had cleaned the barn at the end of the summer, but waste accumulated in the rafters. Members of the commission say they have a vision of hosting a farmer’s market inside the space, which would be impossible with the bird waste floating down.
The issue has sharply divided residents, and led to some chippy public meetings. Last weekend, an estimated 100 people turned out to protest the barn’s closure.
“There are alternatives but they don't want to even think about them,” said Joe Goss, whose family owned the barn for generations before it was sold to the town in 2010.
Members of the Conservation Commission designed and erected what they dubbed ‘alternative structures’ near the barn, but it isn’t clear if the swallows, who only nest in man-made buildings, will take to the fancy new bird houses.
Swallow conservationists say the eviction isn’t a death sentence for these birds, but it does mean they likely won’t reproduce this year.
It isn’t clear when the town will schedule the special meeting to vote on the fate of the barn, but it may not arrive in time to affect the swallows who are now in the area.
Former state Sen. Tom Sherman, who lives up the street from the barn, said time is of the essence. The goal, he said, is to force the commission to open the barn this season to the birds.
With no way to get inside, the birds are now swooping around the barn’s exterior, perhaps wondering if they will be let back in.
