| This alert has expired.
Please
click here for current alerts. |
Cormorant
slaughter complete
The shooting of Double-crested Cormorants has stopped at Presqu'ile. They
have surpassed their quota of 6000 dead birds. Now the
Ministry is harassing the birds and will continue to
harass them until the birds fly south again.
Park Staff are using poles
to knock nests from trees. They don't want cormorants
in the trees at all, not to nest, not to rest, not to
perch, nothing. There will also use noise
and other devices to scare the birds away. This is
occurring while some birds are still nesting.
Twenty-five percent of the Great Blue Herons have abandoned their nests
at High Bluff Island and three out of seven
Black-crowned Night Heron nests are believed to have
failed at Sebastapol Island.
Ontario Parks shuts down the park for one month during the winter to
kill deer, shuts down the wetlands four days every week
from September to December to allow for waterfowl
hunting, and now shuts down areas of the park in the
spring to shoot cormorants.
Presqu'ile Provincial Park has become a killing field and no longer
safe for wildlife. Please don't visit Presqu'ile
again until Ontario Parks can appreciate the value of the
park as a biological reserve.
Thank you for your support.
!
Stop the slaughter of 6,000 cormorants in Presqu'ile
Provincial Park
June 17/04
Cormorant slaughter at Presqu’ile complete; Liberals
move onto Kingston Islands
June 2/04
Current Body Count: 4592 Dead Cormorants
May 26/04
Biggest one day slaughter in Ontario's history - Final
tally 1083
May 25/04
More protesters arrested at Presqu'ile Provincial Park
May 22/04
Photos! Presqu'ile Park / Cormorant Cull Photo
Diary
May 22/04
Thank You For Visiting Presqu'ile, But Please, Don't
Come Back!
May 20/04
Earthroots activists arrested for viewing cormorants
during cull
May 21/04
Great Blue Herons abandon nests at Presqu'ile Provincial
Park
May 20/04
Earthroots activists arrested for viewing cormorants
during cull in Presqu’ile
May 14/04
Cormorants get their say in by-election - Liberals
"culled" from Hamilton East
May 11/04
Lead shot more polluting than bird shit -
cormorant cull update
May 7/04
Coalition works with top lawyer to explore all options
to end cormorant slaughter
May 6/04
Cormorant cull approved, shooting begins today
The Ontario government has decided to proceed with a
cull of up to 6,000 cormorants at Presqu'ile Provincial
Park, even though it has not conducted a promised
environmental assessment, Natural Resources Minister
David Ramsay said yesterday.
Full story,
EBR Posting.
For those individuals interested in witnessing this
atrocity, please contact the Peaceful Parks Coalition at
416.537.3212 or email
ppc@peacefulparks.org.
Apr. 27/04
Cormorant cull on hold while province evaluates assessment
request.
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
is planning to shoot up to 6000 adult cormorants beginning
this month, April 2004, at Presqu'ile. Cormorant
EBR Notice (April 16th deadline).
The Ontario Wildlife Coalition has
responded with a detailed
EBR Submission
and
briefing notes to the Ministry of Natural Resources.
This is a backwards and senseless slaughter
of a wild species, and the worst sort of wildlife
management. Never before in Ontario has such a strategy to
control wildlife been proposed.
It is urgent for you to comment on this proposal
by April 16.
Send letter by mail:
Click here for letter in Word format
Click here
for letter in HTML format
Send letter by email:
Click here to email the Minister (copy and paste into
email, copy your local MPP)
Click here to send automated email through the Peaceful
Parks Coalition
Honourable David Ramsay,
Minister of Natural Resources,
Whitney Block,
99 Wellesley St. W.,
Toronto, ON M7A 1W3
416-314-2301(phone) 416-314-2102(fax) |
John Immerseel, Zone Manager,
Ontario Parks,
Southeast Zone Office,
51 Heakes Lane,
Kingston, ON K7M 9B1
613-531-5716 (phone) 613-536-7228 (fax) |
|
Dear Mr. Ramsay, RE: EBR
Registry Number: PB04E6007
I am writing to ask you to stop the slaughter of 6,000 cormorants on High
Bluff Island in Presqu’ile Provincial Park, scheduled to begin after April 16,
2004.
The slaughter contravenes the very notion of a sanctuary for nesting birds.
It undermines the ecological integrity of the park, and it is appallingly
destructive to the cormorants. There is no scientific or ecological
justification for such a drastic measure.
The Ministry should take a “hands off” approach to wildlife management in
Presqu’ile Provincial Park, allowing cormorants and other species to impact the
environment as occurs in any dynamic, healthy ecosystem.
Therefore I am asking you to take the following actions:
- Direct your staff to withdraw the posting – EBR Registry Number
PB04E6007;
- Clarify that a cull is not to be used as a wildlife management tool in
the nesting sanctuaries of High Bluff Island and Gull Island;
- Instruct your staff to stop “demonizing” cormorants in order to build a
case for their mass slaughter;
- Implement a wildlife management programme for provincial parks based on
an ecosystem approach; and
- Promote provincial parks as evolving and dynamic ecosystems instead of
managing them as green museums frozen in time, protecting “desirable” habitat
and “desirable” wildlife species for “certain aesthetic values”.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter. I urge you to act
quickly to stop the slaughter of 6,000 cormorants on High Bluff Island in
Presqu’ile Provincial Park.
Sincerely,
Signature
Name
Address
City
Postal Code |
|
