[va-richmond-general] In the Washington Post re MD Mute Swams

Kathy Kreutzer, Chesterfield

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/15/AR2009051501
258_pf.html 

 

State Recommends Eliminating Mute Swan in Md.

By Ashley Halsey III
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 15, 2009 11:55 AM 

Maryland's majestic white mute swan population has dwindled in number from
4,000 to just a few hundred, and a sharply divided state panel today is
recommending that the invasive species be completely eliminated to preserve
wetlands and endangered native birds. 

"The mute swan is an environmental hazard to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem,"
says
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/documents/MUSWReport_051509.pdf?
sid=ST2009051501304>  a report being sent today to John R. Griffin,
secretary of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources. "The mute swan is
one of the world's most aggressive species of waterfowl." 

But two animal rights advocates who also served on the panel are issuing a
sharply worded dissenting
<http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/wildlife/md_mute_swan_minority_report_050
9.pdf>  report, saying the species originally introduced into Maryland 45
years ago as part of the landscaping decor on an estate is less harmful to
the bay than humans are, and should not be exterminated. 

"The bay does not need fewer swans," wrote John W. Grandy of the Humane
Society and E. Joseph Lamp of the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission.
They defended the animals as an "engaging and captivating part of the
Chesapeake Bay." 

The primary report from the advisory committee appointed by Griffin,
however, said the mute swans posed a "formidable threat" to native wildlife
species and "feed aggressively" on fragile submerged grasses and that
efforts to eliminate the remaining swans, estimated to number 500, should
continue. 

Ending lethal control would lead to rapid population growth that would
ultimately mean that more mute swans would have to be killed to maintain a
population level of 500 swans, the report said, "We believe that it is very
important for this population reduction effort to continue to reduce the
mute swan population to as low a level as can be achieved." 

"Conservationists are not in favor of protecting a beautiful but dangerous
invasive waterfowl," Jonathan A. McKnight, the report's author, said in an
interview. 

McKnight, the associate director for habitat conservation for the Department
of Natural Resources, chaired the advisory group, which ultimately descended
into acrimony between environmentalists and animal rights advocates. 

Grandy and Lamp's dissenting report was accompanied by a letter from the
Humane Society, which said "the callous and brutal treatment that these
magnificent swans receive at the hands of the Maryland DNR is simply
appalling." Grandy and Lamp argue that any damage caused by the swans is
minimal when compared with that done by humans and does not warrant lethal
measures. They asked Griffin to produce proof that reducing the swam
population has preserved bay grasses. 

Mute swans are native to Asia and Europe, but the first five imported to
Maryland arrived in 1962 as "lawn ornaments" at a Talbot County estate,
according to McKnight. The population expanded rapidly from those three
males and two females, reaching about 4,000 by the year 2000. 

The swans, which can stand as tall as four feet on land and weigh close to
30 pounds, soon lived in tidal waters throughout the state, with the
greatest numbers along the central and lower Eastern Shore around the
Choptank River. 

They have drawn the ire of conservationists on two counts: They are big
birds that trample and usurp habitat of endangered native birds, and they
uproot the shallow-water grasses where young crabs and fish find refuge
until they are large enough to fend for themselves in open water. 

"They cause extreme degradation to underwater grasses," said Kim Coble,
executive director in Maryland for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "If we
leave them unchecked they will come back and we'll have a serious problem." 

Coble said the foundation favors non-lethal controls, primarily coating eggs
in the nest with oil that prevents them from hatching, but backs the state
program to kill the birds as a last resort. 

McKnight said each bird consumes an average of eight pounds of bay grass per
day. "What's more, we're losing habitat for native endangered species," said
McKnight, an endangered species expert. "As far as I'm concerned, two mute
swans on the habitat of a black skimmer colony is two birds too many." 

In

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