Manlius, N.Y. – Four baby cygnets can be returned to the Manlius village Swan Pond for now, but it’s unlikely the village will be allowed to breed more swans in the future.
The future of the swans has been up in the air ever since Memorial Day weekend. That’s when police say Faye, a female swan and mom to four cygnets, was killed by two teens and a young man. The three face criminal charges.
The village needs the state’s permission to have mute swans, which are considered an invasive species in New York. Manlius is the only community in the state permitted to have adult mute swans.
Two officials from the state Department of Environmental Conservation were on hand Tuesday night at the Manlius Village Board meeting to explain the village’s options. The village had a license to keep Manny, an adult male, and Faye and their babies on the pond until the end of the year.
But after that, the DEC says it’s unlikely breeding and the tradition of baby swans on the pond can continue.
The village has a permit from the state DEC good until 2025 to keep the mute swans on the pond.
The state is trying to reduce the population of mute swans. In the wild, they compete with native waterfowl, destroy plant and can be aggressive.
In Manlius, their wings are clipped and they can’t fly away. But wild mute swans are a problem, the DEC officials said, and they don’t want them to reproduce.
The DEC officials told about 25 residents and village officials that the state has a mute swan management plan that went into effect after the village already had Manny and Faye.
Normally, the village has sent its cygnets to a farm in Pennsylvania. The state doesn’t want the babies to be sent there because they could reproduce.
The DEC has no control over what happens to the babies, or the babies of the babies, and the mute swans multiply fast, said Josh Stiller, a biologist with the DEC.
Dereth Glance, acting regional director for the DEC’s Region 7 and deputy commissioner of remediation and…
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