Judge delays cormorant cull

[Spiel]

Judge delays cormorant cull

 

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Sharon Hill, Windsor Star

 

 

A federal judge in Toronto has put the brakes - temporarily - on a proposed cull of cormorants on Middle Island, prompting two animal protection groups opposing the cull to claim a minor victory.

 

The judge ruled that no cull can happen until a federal judge says so.

 

"Today's order is literally 'Do not touch those birds until a judge can review these matters,'" Zoocheck Canada's campaign director Julie Woodyer said Wednesday.

 

Zoocheck Canada Inc. and the Animal Alliance of Canada asked for an injunction last month to stop a possible cull of double-crested cormorants on Middle Island in Lake Erie. Woodyer said the groups, which are part of Cormorant Defenders International, feared the cull could have been announced and the birds shot while the legal issues were being considered.

 

Parks Canada is proposing annual April culls to cut the colony from 4,026 nests to between 438 and 876 nests by 2012. The agency is doing an environmental assessment and online documents say culls of nesting adult cormorants should start in early April.

 

The next step in the environmental assessment was to be a three-week public comment period but that hasn't started yet.

 

The island is part of Point Pelee National Park. Park superintendent Marian Stranak was out of the office Wednesday and Parks Canada didn't return messages left Wednesday afternoon.

 

The matter is adjourned until April 23 in Toronto. Then the animal protection groups will be seeking an extension of the injunction as they argue for a full judicial review, Woodyer said. The groups should know after the April 23 hearing if their legal case could stop a cull from being held this year, she said.

 

The groups are arguing Point Pelee National Park should complete its management plan first. The federal park is required to do management plans every five years. Although it has begun the process, the park's last management plan dates back to 1995, five years before Middle Island became part of the park.

 

Parks Canada calls the cormorants "hyperabundant" and says their guano is killing vegetation. The agency has said 41 per cent of the forest canopy was lost on the island between 1995 and 2006. A Parks Canada document posted online in March said "the option of doing nothing would be inconsistent with Parks Canada's legislated mandate to maintain and restore ecological integrity in national parks."

 

Cormorant Defenders International is urging people to support the campaign to protect Middle Island's water bird colony, including the cormorants, saying the island is "one of the few protected places left where large mixed species water bird colonies can still exist."