Natural History Wanderings

Audublog reports that

The Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward with a plan to kill 16,000 Double-crested Cormorants next spring near the mouth of the Columbia River to protect juvenile salmon and steelhead populations.

This action is strongly opposed by Audubon and the American Bird Conservancy.

Read more Army Corps wants to kill 16,000 cormorants in Oregon.

Portland Audubon points out that the Corps is

• not focusing on manmade causes of salmon decline including dams, habitat loss and hatcheries
• that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is inadequate because it fails to adequately address issues such as compensatory mortality, hatchery fish and wildly fluctuating salmon returns, and provides inadequate research on cormorant dispersal patterns if non-lethal alternatives were adopted
• Double-crested Cormorant populations are already estimated to be an order of magnitude lower than they were historically and that populations in the west outside of East Sand Island are declining

To take action go to Action alert: Stop the cormorant slaughter on East Sand Island — Audubon Society of Portland.