After public outcry, a proposal to protect
threatened snowy plovers on Clam Beach by poisoning egg-gobbling predators was
withdrawn Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
”That didn't seem to fly -- no pun intended --
with the public,” Fish and Wildlife Field Supervisor Nancy Finley said of the
plan to use an avicide called DRC-1339 to kill corvids -- crows and ravens --
that preyed on plover eggs.
Humboldt County's Clam Beach has one of the most
aggressive predation rates by corvids, according to a Fish and Wildlife press
release. In the last 11 years, more than 70 percent of snowy plover eggs on the
north coast have been lost due to corvid predation.
A series of methods put forward at the last
meeting included discouraging preying behavior, trapping corvids, and more
comprehensive approaches like reducing trash that attracts corvids to the
beach: “things to reduce the corvid population on a more holistic scale,”
Finley said.
She said the goal of Fish and Wildlife is
managing snowy plover protection with realistic methods. Labor intensive
options could be made possible with community volunteers.
”That's something I'd like to gauge as well,”
Finley said.
Third District Supervisor Mark Lovelace
expressed appreciation at the community meetings that led Fish and Wildlife to
drop its proposal.
”I'm really glad the Fish and Wildlife Service
has gone out to get some outreach in the community,” he said. “There's
widespread agreement that something needs to be done... but perhaps they need
to be involving the community in exploring a wider range of options.”
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