Loved ... and Hated ... Species

There have been a few posts over at SDBirds here and here and here (Yahoo! and ListServ memberships required) that can be summed up as "Yea, hurrah for Gull-billeds, down with endangered Leasts."  

The controversy seems to be concern by people worried about one species (Gull-billed or Black Terns ... kind of hard to tell which) getting over as it were on other, more maligned and/or deserving species (Least Terns).

This is a great example of the kind of tensions faced every day by folks involved in wildlife conservation.  What’s good for one endangered, threatened, or protected species … may be very bad for another endangered, threatened, or protected species.

I dealt with this problem firsthand in Oregon, where I managed lands on the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Columbia River for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – including the infamous East Sand Island which houses the largest known nesting colonies of Double-crested Cormorants and Caspian Terns in the world. 

In the Columbia River, threatened and endangered Salmon species are king, and most conservation policy revolves around them.  Which means that even Cormorants and Terns, which are “protected” by domestic and international law and treaties, still take a back seat to Salmon. 

Likewise, while Sea Lions are “protected” by the U.S. and most other civilized nations, when Sea Lions feed on migrating Salmon below the Army’s Bonneville Dam, wildlife workers are authorized to use rubber bullets, underwater bombs, and flares to drive the animals away.  And if the non-lethal approach fails, the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho are authorized to kill up to 92 sea lions a year.

Meanwhile, back down river, the birds at the Mouth of the Columbia are continually challenged by erosion of their nesting areas, fluctuating water levels, gull predation on eggs and young, and harassment by predators and humans.  And to add to their troubles, these nesting colonies have already been “relocated” once during 1999-2001, and there is an effort underway to “relocate” at least half of them again by 2015 because of the massive toll they take on migrating Salmon. 

And so it goes.

Adding to these problems is the fact that while the Endangered Species Act mandates that conservation decisions be made solely on the basis of science rather than politics, my good friends over at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) have done yeoman’s’ work documenting all the instances where politics have in fact trumped science.  And that’s a trend that’s apparently only gotten worse during President Obama’s time in office.

And to add even more complication to the mix … otherwise well-meaning people seem helpless to not choose their own favorite and hated species.   And again, not based on science, but because one species is cute, seems vulnerable, or there’s some other emotional attachment.  Or, conversely, another species – perhaps the American Crow, European Starling, Rock Pigeon, or House Finch – may seem vulgar, ugly, or otherwise unwholesome.

So what’s the answer?  That’s a tough one.  I guess less people and more habitat would be a start.  But we here at SDVO don’t hold out lots of hope.