Cormorants on East Sand Island: Update and Next Steps

Last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that the East Sand Island Cormorant Nesting Colony suffered catastrophic failure with upwards of 16,000 Double-crested Cormorants abandoning their nests which were then quickly predated by scavengers such as gulls and crows. The complete collapse of the colony was preceded by weeks of intense killing and harassment of cormorants on and around East Sand Island with federal agents killing nearly 3,000 birds with shotguns and destroying more than 1,000 cormorant nests.

Photo by Scott Carpenter

Take Action for Double-crested Cormorants!

Please call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and ask them to put a permanent end to the slaughter and revoke the U.S. Army Corps permits to kill cormorants. If no one answers leave a message with your concerns and ask for a call back - and remember to be polite.

Robyn Thorson, USFWS Pacific Regional Director: 503-231-6119  
USFWS Main Line: 503-231-6120 

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Cormorants on East Sand Island: Update and Next Steps

When: Apr 7, 2017 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Where: Heron Hall at the Portland Audubon Nature Sanctuary – 5151 NW Cornell Rd

Join us at this presentation to learn about Portland Audubon’s past campaigns to stop this slaughter, including litigation on the management plan, how larger environmental assessments on the Columbia River system could play into this management plan, and ways you can advocate to stop the unnecessary killing of cormorants in the future!

This April, the Army Corps of Engineers is set to continue its lethal-control management of Cormorants on East Sand Island at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The Audubon Society of Portland is calling for the Corp to cancel this year’s lethal control program and to permanently put an end to the senseless slaughter of these birds. In addition, a comprehensive, independent investigation of the federal agencies’ actions related to the killing program at East Sand Island.

The agencies have continually ignored science, the public, and the law and scapegoated cormorants for salmon declines that are a direct result of the manner in which they operate the dams. These birds have suffered enough, and now, the entire western population of cormorants is at risk.

Call the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and demand that they end their cormorant management program on East Sand Island.  If no one answers leave a message with your concerns and ask for a call back – and remember to be polite.

Amy Echols, US Army Corps of Engineers: 503-808-4510

Thank you for speaking up for cormorants.