Upstate mute swans have one chance left

With another spare-the-swans bill vetoed in Albany, New Yorkers who prize upstate’s dwindling mute-swan population may need to step in themselves to save the huge birds.

To date, though, almost no one seems interested in stepping up.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday vetoed a bill that would have postponed state plans to reduce the state’s population of mute swans, including virtually eradicating the birds in the Rochester area and the rest of upstate New York.

Lawmaker after Cuomo veto: 'Leave the swans alone'

Environmentalists fear the aggressive swans, an invasive species imported from Europe, would continue to force out native birds if their numbers were allowed to increase. Mute swans have already disrupted native species in Greece’s Braddock Bay, experts say.

But the birds, whose mate-for-life tendency has made them universal symbols of loyalty and love, have plenty of supporters. The birds often draw admiring gazes in their favored local habitats, which include Irondequoit Bay, Braddock Bay, the Greece ponds and other water features along the Lake Ontario shoreline.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation had originally proposed eliminating nearly all mute swans in the state, but revamped its plan early this year after fierce protests last year from people in the New York City region.

The agency’s new plan spares about 800 downstate mute swans, but continues to call for the elimination of wild mute swans in upstate New York.

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The planning document indicated there are 200 of them in upstate areas, mostly near the Lake Ontario shoreline, though DEC officials say the number shrunk to about 60 due to a limited eradication effort and the lethal effects of harsh weather the last two winters.

Though the plan is to eliminate those remaining birds, mostly likely by shooting them, DEC officials said this past spring there were two mechanisms by which they would happily spare the birds: They could be taken in by licensed avian breeders or collectors, or actively managed by a municipality or other organized group.  In both cases, the parties would become responsible for making sure the mute swans did not reproduce or flee back into the wild.

The latter is the approach that will be used to allow hundreds of swans to live on in downstate areas, where many village ponds and city parks have long hosted pairs of swans.

Since the DEC released its new management plan in March, one licensed private entity contacted the agency about possibly taking as many as 10 mute swans, though no details have been worked out. Not a single upstate municipality has approached DEC about adopting mute swans, agency spokesman Jomo Miller said Monday.

Scott Copey, planner for the town of Greece, said no swan-lovers had asked the town to get involved, and it didn't seem likely to happen.

"I don’t think we would seek to do that. We’re not set up to do that. That provision is maybe geared toward a community where you’ve got the pond in a town park and a family of swans live there. It's for more of an urban area or a village," Copey said.

Greece, in contrast, has several thousand acres of ponds, bays and wetlands along the Lake Ontario shoreline where mute swans can and do nest.

The supervisors of the three towns that border Irondequoit Bay, which has long been a favored mute-swan hangout, did not return calls for comment Monday morning.

Only one upstate municipality, the village of Manlius in Onondaga County, now manages mute swans more or less in the way the DEC described. The birds live in the aptly named Swan Pond in the center of the village.

Even there, there has been controversy over the DEC's desire that swan reproduction be halted.

SORR@DemocratandChronicle.com