I just received the current issue of Egg Rock Update, the newsletter of
Project Puffin of National Audubon; while it focuses largely on Maine
seabird restoration it mentioned some optimistic results from their
collaboration on the Columbia River tern relocation. Diet studies of terns
from the new location showed that the percentage of salmon ingested had
dropped from 75 to 44%, and that the diet consisted of a greater range of
fish species. The terns were encouraged to relocate to a spot where the
salmon weren't so concentrated, and their diets would be more diversified;
1,400 pairs nested at the new site. Biologists from Oregon State University
and the Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission are also involved with
the project.

Project Puffin has worked with much more than puffins, and works on projects
in Hawaii and California as well. On the Columbia River Project I know they
were involved with setting up the sound system to attract the terns to nest
site, which had tern decoys.
Their home page is <http://puffin.bird.audubon.org>, although I think it may
need updating to include the Caspian terns here in the NW.

Regarding the dredging proposal, it will be interesting to see how the
agencies battle it out...

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 West Ewing St
Seattle, WA 9810

e-mail: kevin.li at metrokc.gov


> ----------
> From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney[SMTP:festuca at olywa.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 1999 8:07 AM
> To: 'obol at mail.orst.edu'; 'tweeters at u.washington.edu'
> Subject: Dredging the Columbia River - Terns Affected?
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I usually don't forward News Articles to the list, but am wondering what
> effect more dredging will have on the Columbia Estuary relative to the
> nesting terns? Since our natural resource protection agencies are
> already spending zillions of dollars in a mis-guided effort to destroy the
>
> west coast's largest Caspian Tern colony to 'save the salmon', I can only
> presume that the proposed project will create dredge spoils islands
> resulting in many more nesting sites for the terns....
>
> Have the Oregon/Washington border Audubon (or other conservation)
> groups taken any positions on this new effort. Seems that the birds
> are taking the brunt of the blame and 'conservation' efforts for the
> salmon populations that have been decimated by dams and habitat
> destruction.
>
> Jon. (done ranting now) Anderson
> Olympia, Washington
> festuca at olywa.net
>
> Forwarded message from the Columbian:
>
> DREDGING FOE FILES SECOND COMPLAINT
>
> Wednesday, December 8, 1999
> By ERIK ROBINSON, Columbian staff writer
> An opponent to a plan to deepen the Columbia River has filed a
> second complaint alleging the project will disproportionately harm lower
> river communities.
>
> Peter Huhtala, executive director of the Columbia
> Deepening
> Opposition Group alleges the federal government's own fisheries scientists
> have raised alarm about the project. Huhtala filed a similar complaint in
> September, claiming the project unfairly discriminates against poor people
> who live at the river's mouth.
>
> The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed to deepen
> 115 miles of the lower Columbia and Willamette rivers to accommodate
> bigger ships beginning to call on Portland, Vancouver, Kalama and
> Longview.
>
> Supporters believe the deepening project is critical to
> maintaining the Columbia as a deep-draft shipping center, a venture that
> directly supports 6,000 job and results in $13 billion worth of trade each
> year.
>
> In a complaint filed this week, Huhtala cited a Dec. 2
> memo
> written by National Marine Fisheries Service scientist John Stein, who
> says the dredging might redistribute contaminated sediments from
> industrialized sites upriver. Within weeks, the agency is expected to
> issue an opinion on whether the project will jeopardize the survival of
> 12 imperiled salmon stocks.
>
> "Redistribution of contaminants from upriver contaminated
> dredge sites to shallow water, low-flow sites represents a potential for
> bioaccumulation of toxics by outmigrating juvenile salmon that utilize
> these habitats," the memo stated.
>
> The memo noted that sediments from several sites,
> especially
> the lower Willamette River, contain high concentrations of polycyclic
> aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as DDTs, polychlorinated biphenyls and
> metals.
>
> In 1996, a report by the Lower Columbia River Bi-State
> Program documented major pollution problems and ranked the Columbia
> among America's most polluted rivers. The study found a range of
> pollutants, including heavy metals, dioxins, furans, PCBs, DDT and
> other pesticides.
>
> But corps officials said the samples were taken in
> slack-water areas, not the deep channel where dredging will take place.
>
> The corps will need the states of Washington and Oregon to
> agree that the project would not harm water quality in the river. The
> Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is working on an evaluation,
> but the Washington Department of Ecology is waiting until
> the corps decides on the project sometime early next year.
>
> Huhtala said he believes the NMFS memo is a sign that
> momentum is building against the project.
>
> "I find it greatly useful to have opinions I've been
> expressing all along vindicated by a federal agency like NMFS," Huhtala
> said.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>