Contacts
Rachel F. Levin, USFWS, 612-713-5311
Jim Rogers, Wildlife
Services, 202-690-4755
Mary Detloff, MDNR,
517-335-3014
Steve Yancho, NPS,
231-326-5134 x 421
Federal agencies
today released a final amendment to a 2004 Environmental Assessment (EA)
regarding double-crested cormorant damage
management in Michigan.
Wildlife Services,
a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, prepared the amendment
to examine the environmental impacts of alternatives for responding
to increased requests
for assistance with management of cormorant damage to public
resources in Michigan. The Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and National Park Service are cooperating agencies.
Wildlife Services and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have each signed a Finding of No Significant
Impact for the amended EA.
The National Park
Service
is preparing
a final Decision on the EA.
The 2004 EA analyzed
five alternatives for responding to resource damage associated with double-crested
cormorants
in Michigan
where a need
exists, a request is
received and landowners grant permission. The alternative
chosen in 2004 allowed for an Integrated Wildlife Damage Management
approach to reduce
cormorant damage
to and conflicts with aquaculture, property, natural resources,
and human health and safety.
When appropriate under
this approach, physical exclusion, empty nest destruction, habitat modification
or harassment
are used
to reduce
damage. In other
situations, birds may be humanely removed by shooting,
egg
oiling/destruction or euthanasia
following live capture.
The 2004 EA anticipated
potential expansion of cormorant damage management efforts. However,
requests for
assistance
with double-crested
cormorant
damage to public
resources in Michigan have been greater than predicted,
prompting federal agencies to prepare an amendment.
The
amendment added an additional alternative which expands the Integrated
Cormorant Damage Management Program in
Michigan. Under
the new alternative,
combined annual
double-crested cormorant take by all parties in Michigan
will be up to 10,500 individuals per year.
Like the
original EA, the amendment allows for cormorant damage management throughout
Michigan. However, the
amendment also
provides details
on specific sites where
there are concerns regarding cormorant impacts on
fish populations, including Thunder Bay in Alpena County,
and Big and Little
Bays De Noc in Delta
County. The addition of these locations was made
in consultation with the Michigan
Department of Natural Resources (MDNR).
Cormorants
adversely affect fish populations in Michigan in two primary ways.
First, during spring migration,
a large pulse
of
double-crested
cormorants moves through the state and may forage
extensively in areas where fish
are
spawning
in shallow water and are more vulnerable to cormorant
predation.
Wildlife Services has
developed a program that combines harassment using pyrotechnics and boats
with limited
lethal shooting
to decrease the number
of cormorants
in areas where fish populations appear to be
particularly
vulnerable. These efforts
are conducted with assistance from volunteers
during the migration peak in mid-April and early May.
This approach has been used
at Drummond Island,
Brevoort Lake,
Long Lake and Grand Lake and appears to be successful.
Additionally, double-crested
cormorants appear to be having an adverse impact on fish populations
near
some
cormorant
nesting colonies,
where breeding
and non-breeding adult birds and chicks consume
large quantities of fish.
The 2004 EA addressed
the need for action throughout Michigan, including in the Les Cheneaux
Islands
area and Crow Island,
Goose Island, Green
Island, St. Martins
Shoal and Little Saddlebag Island in Mackinac
and Chippewa counties. The cormorant
damage management strategy used in the Les
Cheneaux Islands includes egg oiling and
removal of adult
birds by shooting
to reduce cormorant
foraging
pressure.
Under the amended EA,
efforts will be made to reduce double-crested cormorants at or
near colonies
in
Thunder Bay, recognized
to be one of the leading
spawning and nursery areas of whitefish
in Lake Huron and one of the most productive
fishing grounds for lake whitefish and
brown trout in the Great Lakes. Cormorant damage
management is not currently planned for
Scarecrow Island in Thunder Bay, which is part of the
Michigan Islands
National Wildlife
Refuge.
The second new location
includes cormorant colonies on Fisherman (also known as Round)
Island and
Snake Island--both
owned
by the State of
Michigan--in Big and Little Bays de Noc
in Delta County. Nesting data for 2006
indicated
a total
of 9,854 nests in the Bays de Noc area,
and the
MDNR is concerned about the
sustainability of fish populations in
the bays.
The Beaver Islands
archipelago remains one of the largest concentrations of
cormorants in the
Great
Lakes. Nest
count summaries compiled
in 2005 indicated that there
are 11,071 double-crested cormorant
nests in the area. A popular smallmouth bass
sport
fishery
in
the area
began declining
in
the early 1990s.
Central Michigan
University, in cooperation with the
DNR, has planned further smallmouth bass study
in the
Beaver Islands
in 2006.
The amendment also
addresses a project at South Manitou Island within the
Sleeping Bear Dunes
National Lakeshore
in Leelenau
County. The
National Park Service
requested assistance with management
of the
adverse impacts of nesting cormorants
on vegetation such as mature white
cedar trees,
primarily
through
effects of guano accumulation.
The Park Service considers the
ancient cedars in the Valley of the Giants
on the island
to be a
distinctive and valuable
plant
community.
All decisions to conduct
cormorant damage management for the protection
of public
resources in Michigan
will be
made after
consultation
with a newly
formed Interagency
Cormorant Group, which includes
representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Michigan DNR,
Wildlife Services, and participating
tribes. This
group will enhance communication
and coordination among the agencies involved
with
cormorant management, and will
be a point of contact for
other
interested parties.
In 2003, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued regulations allowing
more flexibility
in the
management of double-crested
cormorants where
they are
causing damage to aquaculture
stock and public resources
such as fisheries,
vegetation
and other birds.
The regulations
established a Public Resource Depredation
Order
allowing
state wildlife
agencies, tribes
and Wildlife Services
in 24 states,
including Michigan,
to conduct cormorant damage
management for the protection
of public
resources. Without
this
depredation order,
agencies and individuals
would not be
able to use lethal methods
to manage cormorant damage
without
a federal
permit.
Agencies acting under
the order must have landowner
permission,
may not
adversely affect other
migratory birds or threatened
or endangered
species,
and must
satisfy annual reporting
and evaluation requirements.
The
Fish and Wildlife
Service will
ensure the long-term sustainability
of cormorant populations
through oversight of agency
activities
and regular
population monitoring.
Copies of the original
2004 EA, 2006 amendment and related
documents
on
double-crested cormorant
damage management
in Michigan may
be downloaded from the
Fish and Wildlife Service’s
Web site at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/MICormorantNEPA.
Hard copies may be obtained
by contacting USDA-APHIS
Wildlife Services, 2803
Jolly Rd., Suite 100,
Okemos, MI 48864;
phone (517) 336-1928;
FAX (517) 336-1934.
The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal
Federal agency
responsible for
conserving,
protecting and enhancing
fish, wildlife
and plants and
their habitats for the
continuing benefit of
the American people.
The Service
manages
the 95-million-acre National
Wildlife Refuge System,
which encompasses 545
national
wildlife refuges,
thousands of
small wetlands and
other special management
areas. It also operates
69 national
fish hatcheries, 64 fishery
resources offices and
81 ecological services
field
stations. The agency
enforces federal
wildlife
laws,
administers the Endangered
Species Act, manages
migratory bird populations,
restores
nationally
significant
fisheries, conserves
and restores
wildlife habitat such
as wetlands, and helps
foreign and Native American
tribal governments with
their
conservation efforts.
It also oversees the Federal
Assistance program,
which
distributes hundreds
of millions of
dollars in excise taxes
on fishing and hunting
equipment to state fish
and wildlife
agencies.
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