ACOE is looking for comments on how to control one of the problems at Potholes.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District is seeking public comments on a draft environmental assessment and draft Finding of No Significant Impact for the Inland Avian Predation Management Plan. s are due by D.

The Corps is proposing land management actions on federal lands located in the interior Columbia River basin at Goose Island (Potholes Reservoir, Grant County, Wash.) and Crescent Island (McNary Reservoir on the Columbia River, Walla Walla County, Wash.) to reduce avian predation on juvenile salmonids. The EA evaluates the environmental effects of the proposed actions and a reasonable range of alternatives.

Recent scientific studies suggest that the most significant impact of avian predation on the Columbia Plateau is occurring by certain avian species, including Caspian terns and double-crested cormorants.

These studies have identified nesting colonies of terns at Goose Island in Potholes Reservoir , Crescent Island (seven miles downstream from the Columbia’s confluence with the Snake River), and Blalock Islands in the Columbia reservoir upstream of John Day Dam and cormorants at Foundation Island, in the Columbia near Pasco, Wash., as contributors to predation on ESA-listed salmonid species in the Columbia River.

The studies have also identified other predatory bird species in the area -- including American white pelican, California gull and ring-billed gull -- that are having a lesser impact on out-migrating anadromous salmonids.

More than 100,000 piscivorous (fish-eating) colonial birds, representing five different species nesting at 18 different colonies, were documented in the Columbia Plateau region during 2004-2009, according to the Corps.

(See CBB, March 16, 2012, “The Birds: Corps Scoping Plan To Reduce Avian Salmon Predators From Bonneville Dam To Lower Granite” http://www.cbbulletin.com/418011.aspx)

The Corps and Bureau of Reclamation have been developing the IAPMP for managing birds that prey on Endangered Species Act-listed fish species in the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The effort by the Corps and Reclamation is in compliance with the Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The IAPMP focuses on colony-based habitat management actions at Goose and Crescent Islands and also includes potential actions in areas where bird relocation may occur.

The draft FONSI, EA, IAPMP, and related documents are available for viewing on the Corps website at www.nww.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/InlandAvianPredationManagementPlan.aspx