For Immediate Release: May 5th, 2005

Media Release

(Toronto) Ontario's Natural Resources Minister quietly revealed his decision to kill up to 5,500 Double-crested Cormorants this spring in Presqu’ile Provincial Park. Earthroots says killing the native bird is unnecessary, a complete contradiction of park values and a significant waste of money and priorities.

The Ministry killed 6,030 cormorants in the park last spring deeming it necessary to protect trees and other bird species.

"We are of course very suspicious of a Ministry that puts so much energy and resources into the eradication of a native bird while implying that it is all for the sake of protecting old trees," says Earthroots’ spokeswoman Melissa Tkachyk, whose organization has been advocating for the preservation of old growth pine forests in Temagami since 1986. "When Ministry staff use ATVs to create trails to dump 15,000 lbs of dead cormorants from last year's cull on the very island they claim to be protecting, it becomes evident their objective is not about preserving the natural ecology of the area."  

Located on Lake Ontario just south of Brighton, Presqu'ile is home to the largest, most diverse bird colony in the Great Lakes.  It has been designated as an internationally Important Bird Area (IBA), in part because of the very colony that is now under the gun.  Presqu’ile is also a major but largely unappreciated ecotourism destination, which may also be adversely affected if bird life around the islands is disrupted.

"You can’t go into a mixed-species colony and attempt to eradicate one species without disturbing all of them," says Doug McRae, a local naturalist who is Chair of the Presqu’ile IBA and who has studied the Presqu'ile colony since 1978.

In addition to shooting birds, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) plan calls for even greater disturbance of cormorants within the colony.  How this can be achieved without impacting the herons and egrets, which nest side by side with the cormorants, remains unknown. Several of the Park’s more spectacular colonial species, such as Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets, only colonised the park after cormorants began breeding here. It is difficult to independently gauge the impact of the cormorant operation to nesting herons, in part because of conflicting numbers provided by MNR, but it is clear that herons are having to re-nest several times per year now, suggesting disturbance is already a problem.

Ironically, the two islands – Gull and High Bluff - that house the colony are closed to public access during the breeding season to prevent the sensitive colonial birds from human disturbance.

"This really begs the question - what is the McGuinty government's definition of a protected area?" says Tkachyk.

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For more information please contact:

Melissa Tkachyk,

Earthroots Campaigner

(416) 819-7424 (cell)

or visit our website at: www.earthroots.org

The Ministry of Natural Resources' decision to continue culling can be viewed on the Environmental Bill of Rights Registry at: www.ene.gov.on.ca/envregistry/025332ex.htm

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