The City of Oshawa has supported a plan by Darlington Provincial Park to “manage” a colony of 200 Double-crested Cormorants that settled there almost three years ago and threaten the “ecological integrity” of the area. wet area.

The park, which borders the Oshawa border, provides erosion protection for McLaughlin Bay and McLaughlin Bay Wildlife Preserve, a provincially significant wetland separated from Lake Ontario by a large sandbar. The initial bird damage was to protect against erosion of the banks by removing live branches for nesting material.

Ministry staff monitor the area and use pre-nesting control techniques (such as noise barriers) to deter cormorants from the park, but if the colony becomes established and birds continue to nest in the area, control measures. population management may be required.

A Piping Plover breeding pair is also threatened by cormorants, an endangered species that returned to Darlington in May 2016 – after an 80-year absence along the north shore of Lake Ontario – and has continued to nest every year since then.

The ministry signaled its desire to manage the bird population – likely by oiling the eggs, not by culling – in early December and City staff provided copies to Durham Region, Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority, General Motors Canada and Friends. of the Second Marsh to ensure they are aware of the request.

The posting includes a proposed modification to the management plan for the park to add the following wording: “Native species likely to become hyper abundant (for example, double-crested cormorants) can be managed, as needed, to protect the values ​​and l ecological integrity of the park. ‘

The 516.45-acre Darlington Provincial Park, located in the Municipality of Clarington just east of the Oshawa-Clarington municipal boundary, is one of the smaller provincial parks in the province and also one of its most widely used open spaces for recreation.

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