MIKE BRAUN Wildlife service gets a new office

A federal agency involved with wildlife and the outdoors that not many Mahoning Valley residents have heard of will dedicate some new digs in the Valley this week.
On Tuesday, the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service will dedicate a new 7,763-square-foot office, warehouse and distribution facility in Building 1 at the newly developed Western Reserve Park at 590 E. Western Reserve Road in Poland. The facility was built by the Joseph Sylvester Construction Co. of Boardman.
The new location, to replace the cramped quarters across from Southern Park Mall in Boardman, will allow the agency to better carry out its duties in the area.
What does it do?
And just what does the USDA Wildlife Service do?
"We are mainly charged with helping to minimize the effects caused by wildlife in a wide variety of situations," said Andy Montoney, the service's state director for Ohio. Each of the 50 states has a director.
Montoney said that originally, the USDA Wildlife Service was mainly geared toward protecting the nation's livestock and agricultural aspects from damage caused by wildlife.
Some of the areas locally that it has been involved in include the recent rabies baiting program and the West Nile virus problem.
Montoney mentioned wildlife property problems and flocking birds as among the kinds of problems the USDA Wildlife Service works on.
"We are a diverse group. We are here to help the public with any kind of wildlife nuisance," Montoney said.
"We can be contacted for real good, home-grown solutions to wildlife problems," he said.
Montoney also mentioned that the office has been live-trapping and tagging raccoons in the area. "If someone catches or kills a raccoon with the ear tag, they should contact us," he said.
Aside from the information the agency gets from the tag, the person turning the animal in can get a $20 reward. The office can be reached at (330) 726-3386.
The local office has two permanent staff members as well as a technician who works in the region on special cases such as the rabies and West Nile virus problems.
Agency mission
An overview of the agency explains its mission in the following statement: "Wildlife Services, a program within the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, provides federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts that threaten the nation's agricultural resources. WS works in every state to protect agriculture, including livestock, field crops and aquaculture from wildlife damage."
Annual figures released by the USDAWS peg the cost of damage from wildlife on the nation's agricultural resources at $600 million to $1.6 billion with more than half of all farmers and ranchers experiencing some kind of wildlife damage each year.
braun@vindy.com