Letter: Jan. 23 comment deadline on Corps bird plan

Published 6:50 am Friday, January 16, 2026

The current U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) decision to bury active breeding grounds under dredge spoil is the prelude to a lawsuit. The proposed plan to obliterate nesting islands in the Columbia River Estuary is just a return to previous projects that garnered only years of negative press and money wasted in court.

The misguided USACE plan to dissuade-double crested cormorants from East Sand Island is a failure Astorians live with every day. The birds’ subsequent move to the Astoria Bridge is a financial disaster for the Oregon Department of Transportation, and an incredible danger to every crossing car.

Hundreds of cormorants collide with vehicles on the bridge each year, and thousands of motorists experience the grisly slalom of avoiding dying birds in July. How much worse will it be when additional nesting islands are rendered unusable?

Compounding the recent mistakes, the USACE has made in the Columbia River, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is ravaging bird populations on the North Coast and worldwide. Large die-offs associated with HPAI now occur here regularly.

Further disadvantaging birds that raise their young in the estuary is an incredible way for USACE to, once again, draw the eyes and ire of the people and their lawyers. Is that why this new plan, and required comment period, was all-but-hidden from the general public?

Clearly, the USACE does not consider the welfare of animals or people when implementing their plans; perhaps they will consider the financial implications of provoking another contentious, drawn-out court battle. Please comment at tinyurl.com/LCCormorants. The deadline is Jan. 23.

STEFANIE COLLAR

Astoria