Federal and State agencies released the final Decision and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for an Environmental Assessment (EA) on double-crested cormorant management in Wisconsin.
The EA considered five alternatives for cormorant damage management in Wisconsin and was developed because of concerns regarding cormorant impacts on vegetation, other colonial waterbirds, commercial aquaculture, private property, recreational fisheries, and risks to human safety. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - Wildlife Services, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources cooperated on the EA.
After considering comments received during the public review process, the agencies’ preferred alternative is to use an Integrated Wildlife Damage Management approach to reduce cormorant damage and risks to public safety. Cormorant damage management could be conducted anywhere in Wisconsin, but the plan emphasizes the Green Bay and Lake Winnebago areas where concerns about cormorant impacts on natural resources are greatest. Exclusion, habitat modification or harassment could be used when appropriate. In other situations, local cormorant populations may be managed by shooting, egg oiling, egg and nest destruction, or euthanasia following live capture.
Cormorant colonies will be reduced at Hat, Jack, and Cat Islands in Green Bay for the protection of natural resources, including fish. Cormorant colonies will be reduced to 1,000 breeding pairs at Cat Island, and 500 breeding pairs each at Hat and Jack Islands. The agencies also plan to prevent cormorants from establishing new colonies in the Green Bay/Door County Area, with special emphasis on sites with sensitive plant species or tree-nesting herons and egrets, including Hog, Plum and Lone Tree Islands.
Egg-oiling will be the primary method used to reduce cormorant colonies at locations such as Hat, Jack and Cat Island where most vegetation has already been lost and a gradual reduction in colony size is acceptable. Shooting will be among the methods that may be used at sites where a more rapid reduction in nesting cormorants is needed to protect existing vegetation.
Damage management activities will not be conducted at Spider and Pilot Islands in Green Bay and Gravel Island National Wildlife Refuges at this time. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the current information on cormorant impacts on local fish populations does not warrant cormorant damage management at refuges established for the protection of migratory birds, including cormorants. Instead, the islands will serve as sites where no cormorant damage management is conducted. This will this allow scientists to continue cormorant population research on the islands and also provide a comparison to colonies with cormorant damage management.
Cormorants at inland sites will be managed on a case-by-case basis. Historically, several inland sites supported cormorant colonies without reports of adverse impacts. However, the agencies will manage cormorants at other sites, such as Miller’s Bay and Long Point Islands in Lake Winnebago, where there is evidence of cormorant damage to vegetation used by black-crowned night-herons and state-threatened great egrets. The number of cormorants on the islands increased from approximately 358 breeding birds in 2000 to 4,818 breeding birds in 2008. This year, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has asked Wildlife Services to lethally remove up to 2,400 cormorants from the site to reduce damage problems.
The state cormorant population was estimated at 14,882 breeding pairs in 2005. More than 80 percent of the nesting pairs in Wisconsin are in the Lower Green Bay and Door County areas. Substantial numbers of cormorants also migrate through Wisconsin in spring and fall.
In 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established a Public Resource Depredation Order allowing more flexibility in the management of double-crested cormorants where they are causing damage to public resources such as fisheries, vegetation and other birds. Without the 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 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will ensure the long-term sustainability of cormorant populations through oversight of agency activities and population monitoring.
Copies of the final EA, Decisions and Findings of No Significant Impact may be downloaded from the Fish and Wildlife Service’s web site at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/MidwestBird/cormorants.htm and the Wildlife Services web site at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nepa.shtml.
Hard copies may be obtained by contacting USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services, 732 Lois Dr., Sun Prairie, WI 53590, (608) 837-2727, FAX (608) 837-6754.
