Double-crested Cormorants are in the news again, for the usual reason. This time the federal government wants to kill 16,000 of this native bird species because of complaints from fishermen in the estuary of the Columbia River on the Oregon coast. When fishing slows, cormorants beware! We've had two bouts of that in Minnesota in recent years, several years ago in Leech Lake, two years ago on Lake Waconia. One study after another confirms that cormorants are not the cause of diminishing fish resources regardless of where or what species. A University of Minnesota biologist, Linda Wires, has written a book about this problem: "Double-crested Cormorant -- Plight of a Feathered Pariah." It's been published by Yale University Press. An on-line review said, "...it should infuriate everyone who cares about the environment, and the importance of factual information over absurb myth." Amen.

Read the book, and be ready to go to bat for this bird when next it comes under the gun here. It's just a matter of time.