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FWS DENIES STATE PERMITS TO CONTROL CORMORANTS IN NY AND VT
Our input will still matter and is being asked for by USFWS.
Under the guise of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, FWS has denied a permit request from New York's
NYSDEC and Vermont's Dept of Fish & Wildlife to control cormorant populations and their related degradation of
environmental communities; bird populations that have overrun the states' ecological resources. The decision
appears as antiquated as the Act.
Catering to commercial enterprises, aquaculturalists and fish farmers, the USFWS issued nationwide news releases
last year announcing their magnanimous decision to permit the use of lethal means in controlling these black
marauders when they interfere with the commercial fish industry. But now it is acquiescing to the preservationists
and animal rights groups in rejecting sound science, degraded fish and forage base populations, and lawfully
appointed state fisheries biologists and state officials who are going through legal channels and jumping through
all the proper hoops to request a permit to control these out of control federal pets. Nothing like flaunting ones
federal authority over a state regulatory agency to tell us who's boss.
But we can still make a difference. FWS is accepting comments on its Environmental Assessment until April 29,
and we must make our voices heard. There is a general feeling that what is decided for eastern New York and
Vermont now will have a long range impact on cormorant control in our country for years to come. From all
indications cormorant populations are a nationwide problem that is not going to go away by itself.
Even though a series of studies released last fall by NYSDEC convincingly showed dramatic declines in Eastern
Lake Ontario's aquatic resources because of exploding cormorant populations, FWS has chosen to ignore all the
data showing these declines in native and nonindiginenous forage base, and Smallmouth Bass populations.
Ironically, the 140+ page final report on "The Impact of the Double Crested Cormorant Predation on Smallmouth
Bass and other Fishes of the Eastern Basin of lake Ontario" is a compilation of studies accumulated in a
collaborative effort by and between NYSDEC and the US Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division. This
is the same division that is now comprised of one-time biologists from none other than the USFWS. Yet FWS is
ignoring its own people. Sound familiar?
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This has all the makings of a lawsuit waiting to be filed, and as FWS' regional non-game bird manager Dick Dyer
said "We're not prepared to run the killing flag up the pole and have a fight in court."
The USFWS, in response to requests from wildlife agencies in New York and Vermont proposes to issue permits
authorizing each state to limit the reproduction of cormorants in the major nesting colony within its boundaries
beginning May 1, 1999. But it will not authorize a permit that includes the use of any lethal means to reduce their
population.
In its application to the Service, the NYSDEC requested a permit to destroy 300 adult birds and to oil the eggs of
7,500 nesting pairs of cormorants on Little Galloo Island this spring. But according to Ron Lambertson, NE
Regional Director for the Service, the federal permits issued by FWS would allow the states to oil cormorant eggs,
but not to destroy adult birds or chicks, on Little Galloo Island in eastern Lake Ontario, N.Y., and Young Island in
Lake Champlain, Vt. Oiling eggs is a process that eliminates the possibility of hatching but fools the parents into
thinking the egg is still viable.
The Service has released draft environmental assessments for New York and Vermont on its proposals to issue
depredation permits to the states. The environmental assessments are available for public review and comment
through Thursday, April 29, 1999. SPECIAL NOTICE: Another two week public comment
period follows this one until May 14, 1999. They can be viewed at:
http://www.fws.gov/r5fws/newea/nyea.html
and http://www.fws.gov/r5fws/newea/vtea-1.html
Send your fax or e-mail comments to:
Richard Dyer
US Fish & Wildlife Service
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035
413-253-8200
413-253-8643
413-253-8424 fax
Dick_Dyer@MAIL.FWS.GOV
Ron_Lambertson@MAIL.FWS.GOV
On the Web: http://www.fws.gov/r5fws
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