Pop a cork for the Lake Erie Water Snake

Snakes throughout the Lake Erie Islands area are celebrating this week. Okay, I don't know how snakes celebrate, but they must be. Why, you ask?

The Lake Erie water snake is being removed from the federal government’s list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. At the same time, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife announced that it will be changing the status of the species from state endangered to state threatened. This reptile of has one of the smallest geographic distributions of any North American vertebrate and is found almost exclusively on the Lake Erie Islands.

In a statement released by ODNR, state Wildlife Diversity Coordinator Kendra Wecker said, "I cannot overemphasize how the partnership of government, university, conservation organizations, and private individuals allowed for this relatively rapid turnaround for the Lake Erie watersnake. The commitment of island landowners, our biologists, and particularly Kristin Stanford, our Lake Erie watersnake Recovery Coordinator, contributed to this great success. Only through this continued commitment will this remarkable recovery be sustained. The snake population on the islands will be monitored and we want to continue public outreach efforts.”

The Lake Erie water snake was listed as a federally threatened species in 1999, and elevated to state endangered status in 2000. The state cited three factors threatening the continued survival of this non-venomous species: small population size, habitat destruction, and direct mortality from people. Since then, according to ODNR, the Division of Wildlife, with the help of federal and private partners, has worked to secure habitat as well as inform and educate the public about this unique species. ODNR established a land management plan on all state-owned island properties to ensure enough suitable habitats were available for long-term conservation.

State Wildlife Grant funds were used to conduct research and surveys of the snake, help establish permanent conservation easements, and to inform and educate the public about this unique island reptile. As a result, the watersnake population has stabilized and flourished; population estimates of 8,000-plus adult Lake Erie watersnakes exceed the 5,555 snakes designated as a marker for recovery in the USFWS Recovery Plan for the species.

I'm no expert, but that seems like a lot of snakes. 

Killing Cormorants

When I returned to the Lake Erie shore last year after an absence of several decades, one of the things that surprised me was the explosion in the number of cormorants that had taken place. In fact, I don't recall seeing any when I was a boy. Now they're so plentiful that for the past several years the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have been culling their numbers on three Lake Erie Islands. I wanted to find out why.

As it turns out, there was apparently a healthy supply of cormorants - specifically the double crested variety - back in the 1930s and 40s, but gradually, chemical contaminants in the environment caused fatal deformities and reproductive failures and these large, dark, fish-eating waterbirds had all but disappeared from the Great Lakes by mid-century.

But pollution controls led to a remarkable cormorant resurgence. On West Sister Island, Ohio's only chunk of federal protected wilderness, the cormorant population went from zero pairs in 1990 to 3,813 in 2005. Great colonies of great blue herons, black-crowned night herons, and great, snowy, and cattle egrets were threatened by the cormorant invasion.  The cormorant's high-nitrogen feces, or guano, burned up vegetation on the island and cormorant numbers as well have crowded out other, less prolific colonials. Cormorants also strip vegetation and break down trees.

On Ohio's tiny, 17-acre Green Island, a state wildlife refuge, cormorant numbers exploded from no pairs in 2003 to 857 by 2005. The ODNR's goal is to eliminate cormorants there entirely. Otherwise, officials fear, the island could be destroyed in another year or two.

Turning Point Island, a long manmade spit of about five acres in Sandusky harbor, had 409 pairs of cormorants a year ago, along with the lake's second-largest colony of black-crowned herons is situated there, along with a fledgling snowy egret colony. Officials want to cull about 40 cormorant nesting pairs there.

Nationwide, cormorant numbers have blossomed to about two million, with nearly 70 percent living in interior areas such as Ohio.

This was the fifth year for cormorant control efforts on West Sister, Green and Turning Point islands. This year nearly 2,200 of the fish-eating birds were killed with noise suppressed rifles in late April and early May before spring foliage took hold. Last year 2,300 cormorants were culled, and in 2008, the number was 2,600.

Sad times ahead for Lake Erie

It hasn't been a good week for Lake Erie. The Ohio legislature just passed, and Governor John Kasich is about to sign, House Bill 231, which was supposed to bring the state into compliance with the federal law known as the Great Lakes Compact. But some say the law will do exactly the opposite and two former Ohio governors, both republicans, spoke out against the bill, saying it could harm Lake Erie by allowing companies to draw too much water from the lake without any oversight.

The bill would require a permit only if the operator in question drew more than 5 million gallons of water a day from the lake, more than 2 million from rivers or groundwater, or more than 300,000 from designated "high quality streams." It would give Ohio the dubious distinction of have the most generous water-use regulation of any state in the compact.

Former Governor George Voinovich said the bill prevents the state's natural resources department from using scientific standards to determine if increased water usage has a harmful impact. He urged lawmakers to add protections "to ensure that this resource is available for future generations." Lawmakers ignored him.   After all, future generations don't fund the next election, do they?

Sam Speck, a former Republican state legislator who also headed up the Ohio Department of Natural Resources from 1999 to 2006, said the changes would give Ohio "the weakest water supply protection of all of the Great Lakes states." In a letter to Senate members, Speck named at least six areas in which the Ohio law would violate the compact.

The bill's primary sponsor, Republican Lynn Wachtmann, accused those who raised concerns about damage to Lake Erie of "fear mongering." Wachtmann owns a water bottling company and sits on the board of Culligan.

There was time in this state when, on critical issues like this, when it really counted, politics would get left at the door and the good of the state was all that mattered. Sanity ultimately prevailed.

But that was then, this is now. Now it's about doing the most for your friends who helped get you elected.

Sanity has left the building.