Save some beach for vehicles - 5/2/02

[Crowdog]

Save some beach for vehicles

To the Editor:

Does it matter to these extreme environmentalists the millions of people that will be affected by this beach closing? Just to name a few: the disabled, which I have taken out on several occasions, the fisherman, the business owners and the families. 99 percent of the thousands of people I've talked to want this beach left as is.

Is it too much to ask for less than 1 percent of the coastline to remain open for families to recreate in this rare form?

We've given up approximately 14,000 acres of beach since 1982. Nothing is being done in this area to promote or monitor the plover. Since the extreme enviros want our area so bad and don't care about the land they have already taken then, lets trade! Shouldn't they be promoting nesting habitats in the thousands of acres they already have?

Friends of Oceano Dunes have offered to help promote nesting in the 98 percent of beach that has been taken away. That would be too easy and inexpensive I assume. Instead they concentrate on affecting millions of people. Gordon Hensley said it is obvious that a least tern they have found dead on the beach was struck by a vehicle. This is a false statement. All that was proven was "blunt trauma." This bird could have flown into a window of a home by the beach or a vehicle on Hwy. 1 for all he knows. Don't listen to these false statements that are trying to mislead you. If you want the truth go to www.oceanodunes.org or call (805)788-4926.

Ginger Schenk

Oceano

Letters to the Editor for May 2, 2002
www.santamariatimes.com

[Crowdog]

Removing loggerheads would save more plovers

To the Editor:

In your article Friday ("Coastal Commission faces future of Oceano Dunes," April 26) about the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreational Area, you mentioned that Gordon Hensley reported that one of the snowy plover chicks in the park was recently killed by "blunt trauma," which could only mean one thing; the bird was struck by an off-road vehicle.

I remember reading about that last year, but also in the same story it was reported that 48 other snowy plover chicks had been eaten by loggerhead shrikes.

It seems to me that removal of the loggerhead shrikes would save more snowy plovers than removal of off-road vehicles would do.

Alf F. Halsteen

Pismo Beach

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Plover adapted well before wackos came

To the Editor:

For several years, Central Coast citizens have been bombarded with threats of Oceano Beach closure by the environmentalist wackos to protect the little snowy plover. What they don't realize is that this little bird has adapted to the other users of the beach very well even before the environmentalist came into the picture.

Even one egg missing from a known nest could cause grounds for closure. How many times have you been at the beach in the earliest hours of the day to see the tracks of the coyote and the many raccoons that hide in the deep brush after a full meal of the many morsels found by these animals?

Kids flying kites have been cited on the beach by park rangers because the kite could scare the sweet little bird, thinking it was being attacked by a killer hawk.

The beach at Lompoc has been closed to the citizens of the nation during the breeding and hatching season of the snowy plover. The word is to keep out the picnickers and the surfers until summer is over.

Now I read in the Los Angeles Times that the Marines could be restricted from training at Camp Pendleton because of the snowy plover.

It seems to me that these birds are on all the beaches of California and not endangered at all. Is this the wacko's way of screaming "endangered species" just to have the beach to themselves?

Don Niday

Pismo Beach

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Closing beach affects more than off-roaders

To the Editor:

I am not a biologist, an environmentalist or an off-roader. I have not been in the ocean in four years, but I spent 25 years surfing from Shell Beach to the Santa Maria River mouth.

In the fall and very early spring, some of the best waves are between Oso Flaco Lake and the Santa Maria River mouth. In the early '80s, I bought a four-wheel-drive to get to that stretch of beach.

My first trip down the beach in my four-wheeler, I was amazed to find the beach closed off. I was told the snowy plover was the reason. In my opinion the beach had been closed because someone wanted it that way for themselves.

I was born a raised in Arroyo Grande and have spent my whole life on the beach. Over the years, more beach has been closed, and it is said the birds keep dying. Common sense tells me that if there are less cars on the beach and the birds are still in decline, it is not because of the cars.

A recent TPR article says a young chick was killed by blunt trauma, so that means that only an auto could have killed it. Is that speculation or a fact?

Closing the beach does not only affect the off-road people, but it also affects surfers, fishermen and the local economy.

Keep the beach open and keep all beach users happy. Do not cave in to a small group of people only interested in their special wants and needs.

Mark Jones

Arroyo Grande

www.timespressrecorder.com
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