MANLIUS — On Sept. 10, the Village of Manlius Board of Trustees discussed the uncertainty surrounding the community’s longstanding tradition of maintaining mute swans and welcoming their cygnets to the swan pond each spring.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has said the village can keep its swans only if changes are made to prevent them from reproducing. The agency has given Manlius until the end of the year to decide between two options aimed at preventing future babies.
The Village of Manlius has been caring for swans ever since it was gifted native trumpeter swans in 1905. Today, the swan is a symbol of the village community.
In recent years, Manlius has been maintaining non-native mute swans and allowing them to breed with permission from the DEC.
Its license allowed the village to maintain two adult mute swans under the condition that any cygnets born to the swans were removed from the pond.
Traditionally, the babies were born in the spring and remained in the pond until the end of the year, when they were sent to Pennsylvania.
After the village was granted its license, the DEC adopted the NYS Mute Swan Management Plan to attempt to control the population growth and range expansion of feral mute swans, which are invasive and, according to the state, can cause a variety of problems, including aggressive behavior towards people, destruction of submerged aquatic vegetation, displacement of native wildlife species, degradation of water quality, and potential hazards to aviation.
Part of the plan is aimed at preventing the reproduction of captive mute swans. However, Manlius’ license was grandfathered in, giving the village special permission to continue its breeding program.
Last Memorial Day weekend, Manlius’ adult female swan, Faye, and her four cygnets were stolen from the swan pond. The babies were recovered, but Faye was killed and eaten. Manny, her mate, grew aggressive towards the babies following their reintroduction and was ultimately removed.
After Faye’s death, the DEC met with the village board to say that it supports the village continuing to have swans; however, to remain consistent with its management plan, it encourages the discontinuation of the Manlius breeding program.
In July 2023, the DEC sent a letter saying it would prefer the village to apply for a license to collect and possess two same-sex mute swans. If the village wants to continue breeding swans, it recommends applying for trumpeter swans. The letter also stated that if Manlius “insists upon maintaining an invasive species breeding program,” it would need to guarantee that all offspring would be sterilized before being transferred out of state.
In its January 2024 license application, the village agreed to sterilize all future cygnets before moving them. Per the DEC’s request, it also agreed to construct an educational exhibit illustrating the swan pond habitat and associated wildlife.
In February 2024, however, the DEC issued a license allowing the village to keep its mute swans for education/exhibition but prohibiting them from reproducing.
The license specifies that the village has two choices: sterilize all four swans or keep only two of the same sex at the pond to prevent breeding.
Initially, the village was given until Aug. 31, 2024, to decide.
During the Sept. 10 board meeting, however, Mayor Paul Whorrall announced that the DEC recently sent a letter extending the decision deadline to Dec. 31, 2024.
Whorrall also reported that he and Deputy Mayor/Trustee Hank Chapman met with NYS Sen. John Mannion and the DEC in April to voice their opposition to the state’s options and ask the DEC to reconsider.
“The DEC has not changed what they are requesting at all, except to give us four months more to decide,” Whorrall said. “They still want us to keep two swans of the same sex and not have any more babies. . . . That’s not what we want here. . . . People come to the swan pond when they lay the eggs, when they start hatching, and when the cygnets go in the pond for the first time, and they come here to watch them grow until we remove them from the pond and start over again. That’s part of Manlius; it’s a symbol of this village.”
The mayor added that he feels the DEC has unfairly targeted the village.
“We’ve had swans here in the village since 1905,” he said. “The DEC didn’t come into existence until 1970, so they are asking us to remove something that has been here 65 years before they even came into existence. [It] doesn’t make a lot of sense. [The] DEC speaks about Chesapeake Bay, Long Island, [and] the Canadian side of Lake Ontario as where the issues are. My point to them is, ‘Take care of your issues; don’t try to use us [to make] people think you are doing your job. Do your job where there is a problem.’”
According to Whorrall, Mannion was “very supportive” of the village during the April meeting and agreed to write a letter urging the DEC to reconsider the village’s request to continue its mute swan program.
Whorrall said the DEC representatives seemed willing to work with the village during the April meeting, but he heard nothing from them until last month when he received the letter extending the deadline.
“They keep saying the mid-Atlantic states got together and [made this management] plan, and that happened after we already had our permit for Manny and Faye,” said Chapman. “Because we already had our permit in place, we were grandfathered in for Manny and Faye. [Once they] were gone, our permit was no good anymore. [I proposed that] instead of grandfathering in Manny and Faye, they grandfather in the Village of Manlius’ breeding program, which has been successful for [over a century] with no incident. These swans are not getting out or doing anything they are concerned about. . . . It sounded like they were open to the suggestion, [and] then we just get this letter dropped on us.”
After Whorrall and Chapman gave their updates, the board was asked to share their opinions on how the village should proceed.
Chapman said he thinks the board should continue to put pressure on the DEC until the deadline. He also reported that Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said he planned to write a letter of support for the village.
According to Whorrall, US Navy Rear Admiral Stephen “Josh” Jackson, a Manlius native, also offered to write a letter.
Trustee Tom Pilewski said he was concerned that the swan situation might become an expensive and drawn-out litigation.
Village Attorney Bradley Hunt offered to take some time to examine the village’s key correspondences with the DEC.
“Then maybe we can talk next month in executive session, just because I don’t think we know, as we are sitting here right now, what litigation might really involve and how likely it is to succeed,” he said.
Ultimately, the board voted to continue its breeding program at the swan pond and to fight against the DEC’s efforts to halt it.
Village board meetings are held at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month in the Manlius Village Centre Board Room at 1 Arkie Albanese Ave., Manlius.
For more information on the Village of Manlius, visit manliusvillage.org.
