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Double-crested cormorants and urban wilderness: conflicts and management

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Abstract

In this paper we examine the management of human-double-crested cormorant conflicts in urban nature areas using the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto, Ontario as our focal study area. We examine the management perspectives of various stakeholders and how they shift over time in response to site ecology and stakeholder input. We categorize management perspectives on a spectrum from complete human domination to near absence of human intention. Two broad management categories emerge from this framework: interventionist and laissez-faire. Interventionists recognized need for management of cormorants, laissez-faire argued for no management of a cormorant colony that has deforested 24% of the site through their nesting activities. We conclude that for urban nature areas, particularly those with a unique, rare, or contentious ecology, a hands-off, laissez-faire management approach is not conducive to improving human-nature relations. Rather, for urban nature sites nature management must promote a respectable balance between human and non-human life, for the long-term benefit of both.

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Acknowledgments

We thank L. Collins, G. Desfor, J. Foster, J. Laidley, L. Packer and A. Sandberg and three anonymous reviewers for providing comments on this paper. Funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (410-2005-2071). The Toronto Regional Conservation Authority kindly supplied the aerial photograph of the Leslie Street Spit.

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  1. Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Bernard Taylor & Gail S. Fraser

  2. Biology Department, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Dave Andrews

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Taylor, B., Andrews, D. & Fraser, G.S. Double-crested cormorants and urban wilderness: conflicts and management. Urban Ecosyst 14, 377–394 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-011-0165-8

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