Our New Home

The Lancaster Crow Coalition has been formed to take a humane, non-lethal, and environmentally sound approach to managing the crows who migrate through Lancaster County each year -- as they've done for centuries. We welcome you and hope you'll help us by volunteering your time and interest in this project.

The News

Humane Wildlife Management: Progress Realized in 2006 and 2007

The Lancaster Crow Coalition, which includes representatives from Lancaster City, East Hempfield Township, East Petersburg Borough, Manheim Township, and the League of Humane Voters, responded to the crows' arrival.

With a handful of volunteers in areas where crow roosts presented a problem for some people (mostly in high-traffic pedestrian areas of the City and in East Petersburg), we worked with pyrotechnics provided by the USDA/Wildlife Services to manage approximately 30,000 crows.

The USDA's representatives came for 3 days (12/11-13) to train us and help us plan our independent management activities. Our volunteers donned orange vests and headed out into the streets for 2 weeks (from 12/11 through 12/23), every night, to use pyrotechnics (special guns that shoot harmless fireworks) to persuade the crows to stay out of undesirable locations.

Success in the City and Suburbs

The crows were successfully moved out of most areas of the City, and ended up roosting outside of the city, in various spots, some good and some bad. When they turned up in "bad" places (shopping center parking lots, industrial areas), we came in and used the pyrotechnics and lights again to move them along.

The volunteers' efforts helped to provide data for the Penn State scientists (funded by the PA Dept of Agriculture) who were studying our crows' behavior and roost-site choices. What they learned last year will help Lancaster and other towns and cities in the world to manage their crow populations in ways that are safe for the environment, compassionate toward wildlife, and sympathetic to humans' needs as well.

We send a heart-felt thank you to the citizens who put up with our loud fireworks in the early evenings -- and who kindly offered information via our hotline as to crow locations. Your support was and is greatly appreciated!

It's Not Over Yet:  Crow Management Continues

Crow management will continue, each year, probably forever. Migratory birds often stick to the same path over and over, for decades, even centuries, and that's certainly true here, as our fertile landscape has been drawing them since before people started farming. Check out our Plan page for the latest for this year's management efforts.

Crows aren't pests, and while they may choose places to roost that cause problems, that's not their intention. They're actually helpful to farmers, eating grubs and larvae and helping reduce pest control costs the next growing season. They warn other animals about predators (so songbirds at your backyard feeder know when a hawk is nearby, for example), and they eat road kill and other carrion, cleaning up the environment. Cultures throughout history have actually revered and respected them, and for good reason.

Please call our hotline to let us know if you've got a lot of crows in your area. "A lot of crows" refers to groups in the hundreds or thousands -- not to small groups of one or two families -- and it's important that we only attempt to manage them if they're causing real problems for residents and businesses. The goal is to educate them, by where we harass them and where we don't, so they learn where they're welcome and where they're not.

The crows should be left alone if they're not in parking lots, on asphalt roofs, or in trees along densely-populated streets. If you do have crows and feel that they're a problem, please call our hotline:

717 - 413 - 2545