A good summation of the meeting.
Attendance was down from the last one, maybe about 50 to 75 people. Supt George Price gave an overview,then Head Ranger Prokoff(spelling?) outlined proposed actions as well as rejected ones, then opened it up to comments.
There were a few of the obligatory "thank you for looking at this issue and working with us, etc etc etc", and questions about the mating habits of the plovers, but Sweetwater hit the nail on the head - two main points which are intertwined - why wait until less than 1/2 mile of the 8.5 is open before you do anything (and then only open up the other area's UP TO the 1/2 mile amount) and then the resource/labor issue and as it relates to having volunteers work with the plover program.
Saltfly brought up the 1/2 mile issue, it was discussed for a good while, but myself and others don't think a totally satisfactory reason was ever really set forth (maybe we missed it
). The best I got out of it was that the Seashore has a certain number of people, and when the birds are nesting they require ALOT of time and effort to monitor exactly where the birds are, the status of the nests, broods and so on. Therefore, this minimizes the labor which may be used to normally monitor areas of the beach open to orv/scv's. Therefore, they felt they only had enough labor to cover a total 1/2 mile??
Don't really know if that's right or not, but it led to the discussion of volunteers. As Sweetwater said, if the birds were really protected/watched over more against predators,whatever, maybe they would be more successful in earlier hatching and leaving, versus re-nesting etc. So, if a small army of volunteers could be trained/"certified" to assist the Seashore in monitoring,
etc., we would be helping the birds, the Seashore, as well as us. The Seashore did discuss this abit amongst themselves at the meeting and it seems they might be intersted in doing "something" along these lines, and I will pursue this with them.
Of note, the Audobon Society was present and came out in support of the options presented for emergency access, EXCEPT for the Herring Cove option. They felt the Supt. was given flexibility in the Negociated Rulemaking of the 90's to address this sort of thing, but did not want to open any beach (Herring Cove) that was not included in the 8.5 miles finalized by the rulemaking.
LAST POINT - The review period is open until March 17. While it is great the Audobon Society took a rational view on this, I have it on good authority that other user groups are voicing strong opinions to the Seashore for them to do nothing. It is critically important for all to continue to send their comments into the Seashore - e-mail or snail mail.
Sorry for the long post, but a BIG THANKS for all who attended and have communicated to the Seashore!
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