HI ALL:
I thought someone might be interested in this!

Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen
Bainbridge Is., WA, USA
ipaulsen at linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us
"Rallidae all the way"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 09:32:24 -0600
From: Jeff Price <jprice at mho.net>
To: BIRDCHAT at listserv.arizona.edu
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] FW: Caspian Terns-A Major Victory for Birds

Forwarded message -

On Wednesday afternoon, August 8, Federal Judge Rothstein issued an 18-page
order in Seattle that was a complete and total victory for American Bird
Conservancy in the Caspian Tern litigation. The Order requires the Army
Corps of Engineers to complete a comprehensive Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) before any more government funds or efforts are spent on
hazing or destroying Caspian Tern or cormorant habitat in the Columbia
River. In her order, Judge Rothstein also found that the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service erred in granting a permit under the MBTA for taking
(killing) birds without an EIS.

American Bird Conservancy, Seattle Audubon, Defenders of Wildlife, and
National Audubon Society sued in May 2000 to require the COE and FWS to
complete a comprehensive EIS before continuing to extirpate Terns from
breeding islands in the Columbia River estuary on the OR/WA border. The
Federal Judge ruled initially in 2000 in conservationists favor but the
Corps and other agencies still refused to conduct the scientific assessment
required under NEPA in an EIS and proceeded with their Tern policies.

The judge ruled the COE has to do an EIS because of the uncertainty of the
effects of the action, the cumulative effects, and the "public controversy."
Furthermore, the EA the Corps has
contrived was ruled insufficient and FWS should have done an EIS on the MBTA
permit too. A footnote explains that the reasoning applies to cormorants as
well as to terns, a surprise as the suit was centered on Caspian Terns.
American Bird Conservancy's motion for permanent injunction was granted.
The operative language is "Defendants are ORDERED to refrain from further
action regarding Caspian tern and cormorant habitat in the Columbia River
estuary and to refrain from harassing the Caspian terns and cormorants until
defendants prepare an EIS."

American Bird Conservancy and other groups such as the Pacific Seabird
group, National Audubon,
Seattle Audubon, and Defenders of Wildlife had repeatedly commented formally
and in meetings over the last 3 years with federal and state officials that
such an EIS was required. We still contend there is no sound science linking
terns to salmon declines or to impeding salmon recovery of listed species.

Despite the presence of the largest Caspian Tern colony in the world, many
of them extirpated by natural and human induced changes to other habitat,
Chinook salmon returns to the Columbia have been the highest in over 20
years. The entire Rice Island Tern colony has been displaced to
East Sand Island due to habitat destruction and hazing. Birds were also shot
in the name of research.

The Columbia River tern colony hosts 30% of the total North American
population of Caspian Terns and 75% of the west coast population. The
Court's decision is a victory for sound science as an EIS will examine the
impact on the Terns of moving these birds around as well as whether the
Terns are having any real impact on adult salmon returns.

Another tern breeding site at the abandoned ASARCO superfund site was
destroyed in 2001 as part of its clean-up. The Corps, NMFS, and state
fishery agencies have not re-established or created habitat outside the
estuary which is required under their own plan, except temporaily on a
barge. With the approval of the FWS, this successful experiment to establish
a tern colony on a sand covered barge in Commencement Bay was abruptly
halted when Washington Fish and Game
destroyed the colony by taking all 933 eggs under a general FWS scientific
collecting permit. The study was to determine if terns would breed and
fledge young on the barge and to ascertain their diet. This year, Caspian
Tern numbers peaked at 16,000 adults on East Sand Island.
The Terns diet was 22% less salmonids than last year.

For more infomration contact
Gerald Winegrad
American Bird Conservancy
gww at abcbirds.org
http://www.abcbirds.org

End forwarded message

Jeff Price, Ph.D. jprice at mho.net
Director of Climate Impact Studies
American Bird Conservancy
PMB 146
6525 Gunpark Drive, Suite 370
Boulder, CO 80301

For BirdChat guidelines, go to
http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html
For BirdChat archives or to change your subscription options, go to
http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html
To contact a listowner, send a message to
mailto:birdchat-request at listserv.arizona.edu