Presqu'ile Provincial Park proposes a 15 year kill of deer and birds
The Ontario government has posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights Registry (keyword - Presqu'ile) for public comment a controversial proposal to shoot both whitetail deer and double-crested cormorants for a total of 15 years at Presqu'ile Provincial Park near Belleville, Ontario. The public comment period was intentionally posted over the holiday season to avoid public scrutiny. The proposal is draconian, reminiscent of the days when wolves were poisoned in Algonquin Park, and coyotes shot on sight, and we urge you to please give this issue your immediate attention.
Below is a sign-on letter to be faxed or mailed to Dalton McGuinty. You can also email your comments directly to him via his website at http://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/default.asp
While the sign-on letter is available to you, individual personal letters are best. Your letter can then be signed by your family and friends and faxed or mailed to the Premier's office.
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A1
T. 416.325.1941 F. 416.325.3745
Dear Premier McGuinty,
Stop the killing of native wildlife in Ontario’s Provincial Parks.
I am writing to express my horror at Ontario Parks’ proposed killing program of both whitetail deer and double-crested cormorants at Presqu’ile Provincial Park. Ontario Parks has already harassed and killed tens of thousands of nesting cormorants at Presqu’ile, and almost two hundred whitetail deer over the last 5 years.
Now Ontario Parks is asking for an unrestricted program to continually kill both deer and cormorants without any further public notification for the next 10 years – a total of 15 years of continually killing native wildlife.
If this proposal is allowed to proceed, killing these animals will become routine, part of the overall park maintenance program, just like cutting the grass.
This draconian proposal is unprecedented in Ontario’s provincial parks, perceived by most Ontarians as places of wildlife refuge. It will allow the wholesale slaughter of native wildlife based on the discretion of government wildlife managers, and block all input from the public, stakeholders and experts who stand opposed to culling as a useless excess that serves no real conservation concern.
In the 5 years that Ontario Parks has been killing whitetail deer and double-crested cormorants, park staff has devastated these populations. Last year, only 11 deer were seen and killed by sharpshooters, and whole colonies of nesting cormorants have been obliterated from Gull Island.
Both whitetail deer and double-crested cormorants are native to Ontario, and play a vital role in maintaining ecological stability. Eliminating these animals from Presqu’ile will alter the ecological integrity of the park and the surrounding area including the aquatic ecology of Lake Ontario. Double-crested Cormorants are fish-eating birds and top aquatic predators.
Ontario Parks states that both deer and cormorants are ‘over-abundant’ and must be controlled. But the idea that wildlife populations can exceed natural limits and must be controlled through shooting has no foundation in scientific study, and instead is motivated by political pressure rather than ecological principles. Populations have always been self-regulating through the abundance of food and habitat; it’s a basic ecological principle – true for all species.
If this proposal goes forward, Ontario Parks will be creating a legacy of killing in the province’s protected areas.
I am against this proposal. I am against the continual killing of wildlife anywhere in Ontario’s Provincial Parks.
Sincerely,
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