Patti - the following is what I got from Don; I presumed that it went to all the folks on Tweeters as well, since it was cc'd to Tweeters.

Best,

Jon.
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From: Patti Gotz[SMTP:plsgotz at home.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 3:55 PM
To: festuca at olywa.net
Subject: Don Baccus is back?????

Jon.: I've looked over all the tweeters messages and don't see anything
from Don Baccus. I'm totally confused. I really enjoyed having him on the
list so I'm wondering if I missed something or if the list owner deleted
something before I saw it. Can you send me the original posting, please or
tell me what you saw? Thanks.

Patti Gotz

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From: Don Baccus[SMTP:dhogaza at pacifier.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2000 4:57 PM
To: nyneve at u.washington.edu; Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney
Cc: 'tweeters at u.washington.edu'; Deborah Wisti-Peterson
Subject: Re: Re - Caspian Terns

At 07:19 AM 5/31/00 -0700, Deborah Wisti-Peterson wrote:
>
>rice island is an artificial island. it is the result of dredging
>activity in the columbia river to deepen the channel for barges
>and other large boats. it isn't as though the caspian terns have
>traditionally nested on this island because, after all, without
>human activity, this island would not exist in the first place!

And if it weren't for human activity, they wouldn't have so many
hatchery fish to prey upon...

The real issue is that the relocation program is based in politics.
There's no evidence that the colony impacts the protected wild
runs. I've not been involved since leaving the board of Portland
Audubon a year ago, but I don't believe the positions of the
conservation organizations involved has changed a bit:

Show us the science. If the terns are indeed preying significantly
on wild, protected fish (which these same organizations have fought
to protect) then something should be done. The study conducted last
year made ZERO effort to measure the impact on wild fish. Overall
predation was looked at, but no effort was made to identify whether
or not the smolt being taken were hatchery or wild fish.

Currently, the justification for the relocation effort has
been strictly PR and politics. "We can't ask users to cut back
harmful practices on the Columbia if we don't get rid of the terns,
even if the terns aren't really a problem".

That's not good enough - morally, or as the judge has pointed
out, legally.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net.