A growing colony of double-crested cormorants has turned Village Cove Marina into a mess of droppings on cars, boats and pavement, and Spring Lake officials are now weighing a sound system designed to drive the birds out of the trees where they have been roosting. The plan, built on recommendations from state and federal wildlife agencies, would blast noise meant to confuse the birds rather than harm them, with the possibility of removing some trees later if the sound alone does not work.
A Noisy First Step, With Unanswered Questions
Spring Lake officials recently got a clearer picture of the plan wildlife managers have proposed for the colony, after discussing recommendations from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, according to FOX 17 West Michigan News. The centerpiece is a sound blanket designed to disrupt the cormorants' ability to communicate and nudge them out of the area. Assistant Village Manager Lukas Hill said the system is audible to people and would be directed toward the trees where the birds have been roosting, and he called the sound blanket the most logical first step with the least impact. Still, village officials have questions about how frequently the system would operate and how noticeable it would be nearby, the station reports.
The colony's spread has been building for months. Cormorants previously concentrated on islands in the Grand River before expanding into trees on village property near the marina, and the station's report notes that a DNR official said call volume related to the colony had picked up in the six weeks before that reporting. FOX 17 first wrote about the growing colony in August 2025, and neighbors and boat owners have since reported that cormorant waste coated parts of the marina parking lot and raised concerns about damage to boats, vehicles and other property. A separate FOX 17 report on the marina fouling described waste that coated the parking lot and damaged vehicles and boats.
Why Tree Removal Could Follow
In a letter sent to the village in October 2025, the DNR warned that dense trees near the water could make the sound system less effective, and recommended potentially removing some trees in Mill Point Park if the sound blanket falls short, per the same account. Thinning the trees would shrink the birds' available roosting spots and help the remaining sound coverage reach further, officials said. The DNR has also said financial assistance could be available for tree removal as the agency receives more funding for expanded cormorant management statewide.
Any removal on village land would still need to clear local review. Village-owned tree removal requires review through the village process, and council would have to grant permission before that part of the plan could move forward, the report notes. The DNR has offered to assist the village through that tree-removal review process. Mark Powers said some trees occupied by cormorants have already sustained significant damage and said he expects the village may eventually need to remove dead ones.
Fish, Soil and a Protected Species
The stakes extend beyond parking-lot mess. DNR Fisheries officials have said the colony could affect fish stocked in the Grand River, noting that newly stocked salmon and trout can be vulnerable to cormorant predation. Estimates of just how much one bird eats vary: a DNR fisheries official told FOX 17 that cormorants can consume up to roughly 1.3 pounds of fish per day per adult, while State Rep. Alicia St. Germaine told C & G Newspapers that one bird eats about one and a half pounds. DNR Fisheries officials have also said cormorant waste can acidify the soil beneath nesting colonies and eventually kill live trees — a dynamic playing out elsewhere in the state, where C & G Newspapers reports that cormorant droppings reportedly killed trees on an island in Harrison Township, prompting the DNR to plan cutting them down to see where the birds relocate.
Because double-crested cormorants are federally protected migratory birds, any response in Spring Lake has to comply with federal wildlife law. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the species is protected from take under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act unless authorized by the Secretary of the Interior, and federal regulations require states and tribes to implement nonlethal methods first, independently determining those methods are insufficient before any takings of the birds could be considered. Powers said the village depends on wildlife agencies with species-management expertise, since it cannot engineer its own solution to a federally regulated bird. Installing the sound system itself also requires permission from Village Cove Marina's property owner, and the DNR is coordinating directly with the marina on that front, according to FOX 17.
The DNR is leading the overall management effort, and Spring Lake is now preparing to observe what happens when the birds return. Whether the sound blanket discourages the colony on its own, or turns out to be just the first step in a longer process that includes tree removal, remains an open question village officials and wildlife managers are still working through.
