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The Lancaster Crow Coalition was 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 2007/8, Successful Techniques Repeated in 2008/2009.

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

With a handful of volunteers in areas where crow roosts may present a problem for some people, we work with pyrotechnics and other non-lethal methods to manage the roosting locations chosen by approximately 30,000 migratory crows.

Past and Current Success in the City and Suburbs

Since the Coalitions's formation, the crows have been successfully moved out of most areas of the City, and ended up roosting outside of the city, in various spots. When they turn up in "bad" places (shopping center parking lots, industrial areas), we come in and use pyrotechnics and other non-lethal methods to move them along.

The volunteers' efforts help to provide data for the Penn State scientists who were studying our crows' behavior in past years and continue to monitor our efforts. What we and they learned in the past few years 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!

Crow Management Continues

Crow management will continue, each year, probably forever. Migratory birds 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. Our continued development of former farmland and open space results in the crows' increasing presence in residential and commerical locations, but it's not their "fault" -- they're simply going where the food, light, and warmth are. 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, again, that's not their intention. They're actually helpful to farmers and gardeners, 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 rubber or 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