Crowdog
04-14-2002, 10:48 PM
Battle over the dunes
By Jasmine Marshall / Times Staff Writer
OCEANO -- Environmentalists and off-roaders alike are gearing up for what could be an epic battle over the Oceano Dunes at next month's meeting of the California Coastal Commission in Santa Rosa, Calif.
On the agenda: whether the commission will renew the operating permit for Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, and a recommendation from Coastal Commission staff to close off another half-mile stretch of the beach for protection of the endangered Western snowy plover.
In the past year, the legal and verbal skirmishes have escalated over plover protection at the popular state park -- the only beach in California where off-roaders can still camp and zoom around the giant sand hills in ATVs, jeeps and trucks. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court by the Environmental Defense Center alleging California State Parks has violated the Endangered Species Act. Off-road groups like Friends of the Oceano Dunes are mulling a lawsuit of their own in hopes of keeping the dunes open.
But the stakes are high for both factions at the May meeting of the Coastal Commission. The hearing, rather than the courtroom, could be the endgame, at least this year, for vehicles at the park.
Tarren Collins, president of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, said she plans to present commissioners with an updated video documenting what she calls the "devastating effects" of off-roading on plover chicks. She will also ask the commissioners to close the beach and fore-dunes area for the remainder of this year's plover breeding season -- which runs through September and during the height of the park's peak tourist season.
"Only two plover chicks survived the horrific death toll at the park last year," Collins said. "If there were an alternate route to get cars into the back dunes, then fine. But we must protect the plover's historic nesting habitat. This species is on the brink of extinction."
Biologists estimate only about 1,000 of the small shore birds still exist on the Pacific Coast. Loss of habitat to shoreline development and predators are cited as two factors in the plover's decline.
Aside from voting on whether to renew State Parks' operating permit for the park, the commission will consider a recommendation from its staff that exclosures protecting plover nesting habitat be extended from its current boundary of Mile Post Seven to Mile Post Six -- roughly another half mile.
Biologists from the Point Reyes National Bird Observatory recommended extending the exclosures at the end of last year's plover breeding season to give the fledglings a better chance this year. But the recommendation was rejected by members of a scientific subcommittee of the technical review team for the park on the grounds that further study was needed on the effectiveness of exclosures.
Steve Monowitz, a staff member in the Santa Cruz office said Friday that Coastal Commission staff ultimately did not agree with the position of the scientific subcommittee, and decided to recommend extension of the exclosures. A memo was sent to Stave Yiamichi, state parks' superintendent of the Oceano Dunes, recommending the extension, and the decision was made to put the decision before the Coastal Commission.
Yet in a March 18 memo by John Dixon of the Coastal Commission's main office in San Francisco to Monowitz, Dixon said he was "sympathetic" to the concern about the need for more study, noting that extending the exclosures could be "an 'x-factor' concern.'"
"This is the worry that there may be some unexpected interaction between plover behavior, fencing and the disturbance regime in the area that would result in chick mortality," Dixon wrote, adding, "Recent history is replete with examples of management of nature gone awry in ways no one anticipated."
State Parks officials said they want the Coastal Commission to follow the recommendation of the scientific subcommittee.
"While we cannot predict the outcome of that hearing, we are hopeful that the California Coastal Commission will follow the recommendations of the experts appointed to the scientific subcommittee," said David Widell, deputy director of the off-highway vehicle division for state parks.
Meanwhile, off-road lobbyists vow to show up in force at the hearing and fight against closing off any more of the dunes.
"We are opposed to any closures. We're opposed to the closures that exist now," said Gerard Forgnone, a spokesman for Friends of the Oceano Dunes.
* Staff writer Jasmine Marshall can be reached at (805) 739-2219, or by e-mail at jmarshall@pulitzer.net
April 14, 2002
By Jasmine Marshall / Times Staff Writer
OCEANO -- Environmentalists and off-roaders alike are gearing up for what could be an epic battle over the Oceano Dunes at next month's meeting of the California Coastal Commission in Santa Rosa, Calif.
On the agenda: whether the commission will renew the operating permit for Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, and a recommendation from Coastal Commission staff to close off another half-mile stretch of the beach for protection of the endangered Western snowy plover.
In the past year, the legal and verbal skirmishes have escalated over plover protection at the popular state park -- the only beach in California where off-roaders can still camp and zoom around the giant sand hills in ATVs, jeeps and trucks. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court by the Environmental Defense Center alleging California State Parks has violated the Endangered Species Act. Off-road groups like Friends of the Oceano Dunes are mulling a lawsuit of their own in hopes of keeping the dunes open.
But the stakes are high for both factions at the May meeting of the Coastal Commission. The hearing, rather than the courtroom, could be the endgame, at least this year, for vehicles at the park.
Tarren Collins, president of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, said she plans to present commissioners with an updated video documenting what she calls the "devastating effects" of off-roading on plover chicks. She will also ask the commissioners to close the beach and fore-dunes area for the remainder of this year's plover breeding season -- which runs through September and during the height of the park's peak tourist season.
"Only two plover chicks survived the horrific death toll at the park last year," Collins said. "If there were an alternate route to get cars into the back dunes, then fine. But we must protect the plover's historic nesting habitat. This species is on the brink of extinction."
Biologists estimate only about 1,000 of the small shore birds still exist on the Pacific Coast. Loss of habitat to shoreline development and predators are cited as two factors in the plover's decline.
Aside from voting on whether to renew State Parks' operating permit for the park, the commission will consider a recommendation from its staff that exclosures protecting plover nesting habitat be extended from its current boundary of Mile Post Seven to Mile Post Six -- roughly another half mile.
Biologists from the Point Reyes National Bird Observatory recommended extending the exclosures at the end of last year's plover breeding season to give the fledglings a better chance this year. But the recommendation was rejected by members of a scientific subcommittee of the technical review team for the park on the grounds that further study was needed on the effectiveness of exclosures.
Steve Monowitz, a staff member in the Santa Cruz office said Friday that Coastal Commission staff ultimately did not agree with the position of the scientific subcommittee, and decided to recommend extension of the exclosures. A memo was sent to Stave Yiamichi, state parks' superintendent of the Oceano Dunes, recommending the extension, and the decision was made to put the decision before the Coastal Commission.
Yet in a March 18 memo by John Dixon of the Coastal Commission's main office in San Francisco to Monowitz, Dixon said he was "sympathetic" to the concern about the need for more study, noting that extending the exclosures could be "an 'x-factor' concern.'"
"This is the worry that there may be some unexpected interaction between plover behavior, fencing and the disturbance regime in the area that would result in chick mortality," Dixon wrote, adding, "Recent history is replete with examples of management of nature gone awry in ways no one anticipated."
State Parks officials said they want the Coastal Commission to follow the recommendation of the scientific subcommittee.
"While we cannot predict the outcome of that hearing, we are hopeful that the California Coastal Commission will follow the recommendations of the experts appointed to the scientific subcommittee," said David Widell, deputy director of the off-highway vehicle division for state parks.
Meanwhile, off-road lobbyists vow to show up in force at the hearing and fight against closing off any more of the dunes.
"We are opposed to any closures. We're opposed to the closures that exist now," said Gerard Forgnone, a spokesman for Friends of the Oceano Dunes.
* Staff writer Jasmine Marshall can be reached at (805) 739-2219, or by e-mail at jmarshall@pulitzer.net
April 14, 2002