ContactsRachel F. Levin,
FWS, 612-713-5311
Jim Rogers, USDA-Wildlife
Services, 202-690-4755
Mary Detloff, MDNR,
517-335-3014
Steve Yancho, NPS,
231-326-5134, ext. 421
Federal agencies
are requesting public input on an 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 on
the amended 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 chosen alternative
in the 2004 EA implemented an Integrated Wildlife Damage Management
approach
to reduce
cormorant damage and conflicts to 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 anticipated,
prompting federal agencies to prepare an amendment.
The
draft amendment to the EA adds an additional alternative which proposes
to expand the Integrated Cormorant Damage
Management Program
in Michigan.
Under the new alternative, combined annual double-crested
cormorant take by all parties
in Michigan could be up to 10,500 individuals per year.
In addition to continuing
control on sites where Wildlife Services has worked since 2004, the amended
EA would
allow cormorant
damage management
at additional
sites where landowners grant permission. The amendment
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).
The amendment
also addresses a proposed project to reduce cormorant impacts on vegetation
at South Manitou
Island
within the Sleeping
Bear Dunes
National Lakeshore
in Leelenau County.
The agencies drafted
the amended EA in response to reported damage to fishery and other natural
resources
in these
areas. During
spring migration,
a
large pulse of double-crested cormorants moves
through Michigan. These birds 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 with 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 foraging
breeding and non-breeding adult birds and chicks
consume large quantities of fish.
Under the
proposed amendment, efforts would be made to reduce double-crested
cormorants at or
near colonies
in Thunder
Bay in Alpena County,
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
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
proposed new location includes cormorant colonies on Round Island and
Snake
Island,
both owned by the State
of Michigan,
in
Big and Little
Bays De Noc in Delta County. Nesting data
compiled by the MDNR for 2005 indicated
a total of 6,813
nests in
three
colonies in the area,
and the
MDNR is concerned
about the sustainability of fish populations
there.
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.
In addition to the
areas named above, the National Park Service has requested
assistance
with
cormorant damage
management
on South Manitou
Island,
within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National
Lakeshore in Leelenau County, because
of concern about 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.
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 includes egg-oiling
and the
removal
of adult
birds by shooting
to reduce cormorant
foraging pressure
on the
site.
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
and draft amendment on double-crested
cormorant damage management
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.
Written comments on
the EA will be accepted through July
19,
2006. Written
comments
should be submitted
to the
above address
for USDA-APHIS
Wildlife
Services. When
faxing a comment, a copy
should also be mailed to ensure that
a complete
version of the
text is received.
Copies of 2004 Environmental
Assessment for double-crested
cormorant management
in Michigan
and related
documents are also available
on the Web at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/MICormorantNEPA,
or by contacting USDA-APHIS
Wildlife Services at the
above address.
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.
-FWS-
| 
