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[color=darkred]Here's the latest on the ongoing cull. If one of these protesters knocked on my door I'd hit him or her in the side of the head with a dead cormorant. Don't be afraid to email Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay letting him know that you support the cull!
From the Trentonian...
Cormorant cull protester ties himself to tree
Jack Evans
Local News - Monday, May 29, 2006 @ 10:00
PRESQU’ILE PARK A young St. Catharines man early Thursday morning lashed himself to a tree on High Bluff Island in the midst of a shooting cull of double-crested cormorants in the immediate vicinity. AnnaMaria Valastro, spokesperson for Peaceful Parks Coalition, said this morning the man was one of their supporters but did not know his full name. The man, she added, lashed himself to a tree about 25 feet above the ground around 7 a.m. despite threats of rain and even thunderstorms.
She said the man told fellow protesters he was doing it because in a meeting yesterday, Park Superintendent Tom Mates refused to accept their pleas that a number of the large black waterfowl now had hatched eggs and the resulting chicks would be helpless if the adults are shot. She added that the experienced bird watchers in their group could tell there are hatchlings by the behaviour of the adults, which changes once eggs hatch.
She said Mates’ reply was that he could not see the hatchlings and therefore the cull would continue until the quota for shooting tree nesting cormorants is reached.
That quota was set at 3,000 tree-nesting birds, to be shot using “non-toxic” ammunition. The recommendation was one of several from a report early this year from an independent committee of wildlife biologists, commissioned by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
An estimated 6,030 birds were culled in 2004, also based on recommendations by experts, plus less than 1,900 of a recommended 5,500 last year. The culling is on top of massive egg oiling and removal of many nests
Thursday’s development was one of the most dramatic in three years of confrontation between the ministry and its Presqu’ile Park staff and the Peaceful Parks Coalition group and other volunteers over the massive culling.
The two sides to the story are this simple: the Ministry of Natural Resources and park staff insist they are acting on culling recommendations put forth by an independent and professional committee of wildlife biologists. A consortium called Peaceful Parks Coalition is adamantly opposed to any kind of killing cull at any time and finds that Presqu’ile seems to be the worst offender in Ontario.
While the double-crested cormorant has been the focus of activities in recent days, the coalition also challenges the wisdom and validity of the deer cull and even hunting blinds in the fall.
Provincial park officials, both local and regional, insist that the cormorant levels remain too high, according to the report by independent wildlife biologists, “but we plan on maintaining a cormorant population at a suitable level,” said Susan Grigg, planner for the Eastern Region of provincial parks in a recent interview. “We want to cull about 3,000 tree-nesting cormorants in order to protect the tree cover on High Bluff Island,” she added, plus oiling eggs on several thousand on-land nests to prevent them from hatching.
Since the cormorant culling started four years ago, the Peaceful Parks Coalition has recorded a substantial decline in attendance at Presqu’ile, based on provincial park reports.
AnnaMaria Valastro, spokesperson for Peaceful Parks, admitted she could not confirm that reduced attendance at Presqu’ile can be proven to be the result of her group’s campaign, but she points out that attendance at the park has dropped since Peaceful Parks started handing out pamphlets at the park’s approach, news media blitz and direct talks with campers and bathers.
Mates countered that there are many reasons for fluctuations in park attendance, including weather patterns, beach postings for high bacteria and water temperatures.
He also affirmed that while day use at the park may be down, there has been no decrease in the number of campers or picnic parties.
He said the reductions so far, from 233,521 visitors in 2001 to 1934,067 in 2005 do not warrant any serious concern on his part or does he foresee any need to change staffing levels or procedures.
Mates has also stressed on several occasions that the park policies, approved by the minister, are to create a public park that offers a wide variety of both habitat and use, including a waterfowl hunting arrangement. He noted that one of the park’s beaches has been set aside from public use as a habitat preserve for waterfowl and shorebirds.
Valastro, meanwhile, said her group plans a literal door-to-door campaign in Brighton this season, handing out pamphlets about the killing of wildlife in the park.
“Most people go to the park just to get a glimpse of the wildlife, but here we have a situation where the very people entrusted to protect wildlife are doing the killing,” she said.
She also charges the ministry and park staff with improper procedures, such as implementing a 2.5-kilometre stand-off zone around High Bluff and Gull islands and asking the OPP to enforce it. Research by her organization after at least one supporter was charged for violation of the no-go zone, showed the Coast Guard did not give official clearance for the zone under marine law and has since waived enforcing such a zone.
Coalition volunteers have been monitoring the situation at the park all week and were surprised when, as early as before 5:30 on Wednesday morning, “we learned they had already resumed shooting cormorants,” said Valastro. She said volunteers were on duty at that hour and shooting was already under way.
Prominent area naturalists, in early interviews agreed with the Peaceful Parks contention that the cormorant population is not an excessive one and has stabilized. Also, contrary to information put out by cull supporters, especially the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, that the cormorants eat huge quantities of game fish as also unfounded. Their principal diet is alewife. But they agreed that if and when a certain specie’s numbers become excessive, a cull is the proper way to manage it.
They also pointed out that herons also nest in trees and the results in terms of loss of trees eventually are the same. Yet park officials insist they want to maintain the heron colonies.
Bodies of the culled cormorants are disposed of in a large compost pit, enlarged earlier this year. Unpleasant odours wafting across to campsites have prompted a number of campers and bathers to complain
The authors of the culling recommendations are adding to this year’s report that a long-term strategy should be put in place before next year, to include an annual technical review committee evaluation.
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