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]