OHIO-BIRDS Archives

August 2007

OHIO-BIRDS@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:26:14 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (70 lines)
        The American Ornithologists' Union, the organization upon which so many 
readers of this list rely for such earth-shakingly significant issues 
such as whether to capitalize English names of birds, also does a lot of 
important scientific work, including on conservation through its 
committees. The AOU says "[t]he role of the Committee in avian 
conservation is to provide objective, independent review of science 
relevant to critical, and often controversial, issues." One committee 
report treats the US Fish and Wildlife Service's plans to "manage" 
double-crested cormorants. The local incarnation of this plan involves 
the shooting of cormorants off their nests in Ohio over the past two 
years, and for any number of years to come, in partnership with the Ohio 
Division of Wildlife and the US Department of Agriculture's "Wildlife 
Services" division, until recently called "Animal Damage Control."
        The AOU's report on cormorants, along with others on grassland birds, 
red-cockaded woodpeckers, and the California population of the spotted 
owl, are at http://www.aou.org:80/committees/conservation.php3  .
        The AOU Committee, which I need hardly say is not one of the "animal 
rights groups" cited by Ohio's cormorant-control advocates, summarizes 
its findings on the Federal plans on cormorants as follows:
"1) the scientific evidence supporting the proposed action is weak;
2) the analysis of the data is simplistic;
3) the management plan proposed by USFWS is inadequate and has a poorly
evaluated potential to be effective;
4) the consequences of the proposed action on the cormorants are 
unknown, and appear to be punitive instead of mitigatory;
5) the assessment of success is unclear; in the DEIS, success is based 
on public perception and not on scientific results. The FEIS is not 
clear on how success will be assessed; and
6) there is no adequate mechanism for monitoring the population effects 
of the plan, nor for deciding when to terminate management actions." 
(pp. 9-10).
It further concludes:
"...we find that (a) there is no good evidence presented in the FEIS 
that cormorants cause significant fisheries problems except at 
aquaculture and hatchery sites; (b) the solutions proposed, primarily 
increased take, would likely be ineffective at aquaculture and
hatchery sites yet potentially destructive to continental cormorant 
populations; (c) how ‘success’ of a control program would be defined is 
unclear; and (d) there is no monitoring program in place or proposed 
that could evaluate success, or detect effects on continental cormorant
populations,. Consequently, it appears that what the USFWS plans to do 
constitutes persecution of a bird species rather than a solution to the 
real problems of declining fisheries and depredation
at aquaculture and hatchery sites." (p. 21).
        Ohio's lethal controls are claimed not to be motivated by any effect on 
the local fishery (although support from fishers has been eagerly 
accepted), but only by the need to protect colonies of other nesting 
birds and the associated vegetation. The AOU report overall gives short 
shrift to this justification, but does say:
"Other concerns associated with Double-crested Cormorants
addressed by the FEIS were not supported by scientific evidence, or at 
most showed that the impact would be localized to the immediate sites of 
colonies or roosts . This included impacts to other birds, vegetation, 
water quality, and federally listed species." (pp. 15-16).
        Readers who don't like cormorants, and who agree with overheated media 
descriptions of a "winged black plague," may prefer not to disturb their 
prejudices, but the opportunity is hereby offered.
Bill Whan
Columbus

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2