8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2016
Birds: Nonlethal hazing is to increase survival of smolts
Continued from Page 1A
The bridge has hosted the
ish-eating birds before, act-
ing as a seasonal home to
around 75 to 100 nesting pairs
of cormorants on average,
according to studies by the
Corps — nothing compared
to what has been observed in
the past few weeks. It isn’t
clear what the increase means
for the bridge itself, or if the
nests will remain in use after
the regular nesting season has
passed.
Meanwhile, the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life is continuing with regu-
larly scheduled hazing of dou-
ble-crested cormorants along
Oregon estuaries to protect
smolt.
The bulk of this work
wrapped up in May, but Clat-
sop County’s Fisheries Proj-
ect holds a permit from the
state that allows them to also
harass the birds in July, when
the department typically
releases ish from net pens in
Youngs Bay and Tongue Point.
With lower numbers of brood
stock this year, however, Nat-
ural Resources Manager Steve
Meschke doubts they’ll need
to go out in their boats and
chase cormorants around the
bay — Clatsop County’s usual
method.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
A lone cormorant takes
flight under the Astoria
Bridge.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Cormorants rest below the Astoria Bridge Wednesday.
Different methods,
same birds
Oregon’s state-run haz-
ing is very different from the
methods undertaken by the
Corps on East Sand Island.
Last year, the Corps
obtained a permit from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice that allowed them to
begin targeting and killing
double-crested cormorants,
planning to ultimately reduce
approximately 14,900 breed-
ing pairs of double-crested
cormorants to 5,900 breed-
ing pairs by 2018. The agency
says the birds eat millions of
protected salmon and steel-
head traveling through the
Columbia River estuary and
threaten the survival of those
runs, statements and reason-
ing the Portland Audubon
Society and others have since
challenged.
As of May 16, the Corps’
contractors killed 2,394 dou-
ble-crested cormorants and
oiled 1,092 nests to prevent
eggs from hatching before
all the birds disappeared and
culling activities were halted
early.
The goal for the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life hazing is similar, but dif-
ferent. Instead of using guns,
the state and the other groups
it contracts with or issues per-
mits to for hazing work are
more likely to chase the birds
around in boats or use laser
pointers to wake them up and
move them away from areas
where young ish are going to
be passing through.
Their goal with this nonle-
thal hazing is to increase the
survival of smolts, particu-
larly the Oregon Coast coho
population that is federally
listed as threatened, by chang-
ing the cormorants’ behavior
for a short period of time. The
hazing occurs when the ish
are passing through estuaries
along the southern and mid-
coast — Tillamook, Nehalem,
Nestucca, Elsie and Coquille
— and in the Lower Colum-
bia River. Such hazing has
regularly occurred since the
1980s.
Stresses on ish
Oregon Fish and Wildlife
can’t say for certain that this
hazing ultimately reduces the
number of birds traveling to
sensitive areas, or if keeping
the birds away from smolts
means more ish survive to
come back as adults.
“The diet data indicates
cormorants don’t really care
what they eat, they eat what’s
around and what’s easy to
catch,” said James Lawonn,
a biologist and avian preda-
tion coordinator for the depart-
ment. As other prey begin to
run through the rivers and up
and down the coast after May,
research by the department
and Oregon State University
show salmon make up even
less of the birds’ diet.
Salmon survival depends
on a variety of factors, includ-
ing huge variables like ocean
conditions and habitat loss,
Lawonn said. Still, the state is
trying to ease any additional
stresses the ish may face.
This sort of nonlethal haz-
ing will likely continue for
the foreseeable future — the
state’s particular hazing pro-
gram is already in the bud-
get for next year — but it is,
Lawonn believes, ultimately a
social question.
“How much does society
want to harass a native bird to
promote survival of salmon,
some of which are in conser-
vation danger, some of which
aren’t?” he said.
Manager: He said the commission keeps such information at ‘arm’s length’
Continued from Page 1A
A reversal
The Nygaard family, who
own Warrenton Fiber, and
Mayor Kujala’s family, who
own property near the dam,
have urged the city to con-
sider taking control of the dam,
warning of possible lood risks
if the dam is removed by the
water district.
The City Commission voted
2-2 in May — with Mayor
Kujala recused because of a
conlict of interest — against
renewing a $1.2 million agree-
ment with the water district
and the Columbia River Estu-
ary Study Taskforce on the
dam. The agreement would
have replaced a gravel road
over the dam with a single-lane
bridge so the city could main-
tain emergency access over the
river once the dam is removed.
The project would have been
funded with money from the
federal Bonneville Power
Administration.
The commission had twice
voted for the deal in the past but
reversed course under pressure
from the Nygaard and Kujala
families.
The water district responded
in May by again voting to
remove the dam, dropping
the provision for a single-lane
bridge for the city.
Planning Commission
review
Removing the dam would
require a city permit and, likely,
a review by the Planning Com-
mission, which could examine
whether engineers for the water
district and CREST adequately
modeled the looding risk.
A Planning Commission
vote could be appealed to the
City Commission.
Fritsch said he is con-
cerned the process might now
be “tainted” because city com-
missioners have viewed some
of the information on the dam
before the Planning Commis-
sion and before they might
have to weigh an appeal.
The city manager has con-
sistently advised the City Com-
mission to focus on the possi-
bility of securing a bridge over
the river for emergency access
if the dam is removed — and
not the lood-control issues —
because the land use questions
would irst be heard by the
Planning Commission.
Fritsch said the city asked
a consultant last year to do a
technical review on the water
district’s engineering reports
on the dam to help the Planning
Commission, but the water dis-
trict and CREST withdrew the
permit application before the
Planning Commission took a
vote.
The city consultant contin-
ued to review the water dis-
trict’s engineering reports in
the expectation that the proj-
ect could come back before the
Planning Commission.
Fritsch said the City Com-
mission “has always kept that
at arm’s length and has not col-
lected that information. It’s
what we did for Oregon LNG.
It’s what we did for Wal-Mart.”
Pressed as to whether he
should have shared more details
with the commission, the city
manager said: “I don’t think it
would have been appropriate.”
Deined lood plain
Among the city consul-
tant’s main conclusions, accord-
ing to an October memo, is that
while only minimal differences
in water elevations are expected
if the dam is removed, the water
district’s engineering reports
did not identify speciic areas
of inundation or properties that
could be impacted. The consul-
tant also questioned the potential
impact of even small increases
in water elevation on the city’s
levees, even though the dam is
not part of the levee system.
Tessa Scheller, the chair-
woman of the water district’s
board of directors, said the
water district was aware of the
city consultant’s observations
before adopting the engineer-
ing plan.
“We’re conident that we
understand the lood plain,” she
said. “We live here. We would
not want to lood ourselves.”
The water district took pos-
session of the dam — built by
the federal government in 1963
— after the structure exceeded
a 50-year life span.
“We are determined to
remove that dam,” Scheller
said. “Our liability increases
every day it’s there and open
for public misuse.”
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