Crowdog
02-29-2004, 09:29 AM
Beach closures to resume Monday as plover nesting season begins
By Janene Scully -- Staff Writer
2/29/04 On Monday, the tide turns at three area beaches.
For the next seven months, one beach will have limited hours and restricted access, another will have ropes outlining off-limit areas, and a third will make large sections off-limits to off-road vehicles.
Each stretch of coast is operated by a different agency -- the Air Force, the county and the state -- but the one common factor linking the Surf, Guadalupe and Oceano beaches is a federally protected shorebird: the western snowy plover.
Monday marks the opening of the plover's nesting season, which Central Coast residents have started to accept, although grudgingly in many cases, as the beginning of restrictions on the three beaches.
"I found that over the years, people have become much more accustomed to closures and restrictions," said Willie Richerson, preserve manager at Rancho Guadalupe County Park. "This past season we had a very high level of cooperation."
"Our amount of citations given for trespassing have decreased, and that's a great thing," said Laura Gardner, a state parks ecologist at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
While the goal is the same -- protecting the plover population -- the rules for visitors are different at each beach.
At Surf Beach on Vandenberg Air Force Base west of Lompoc, access is available four days a week, Fridays through Mondays, for 10 hours a day on one-half mile of shoreline. The adjacent Ocean Beach is closed.
If more than 50 trespassing violations occur, the military has to close the beach until the end of the plover's nesting season on Sept. 30. Two other base beaches, accessible only to the military and others with base access, also have restrictions.
Because the beaches are on federal land, they must meet more stringent requirements under the Endangered Species Act.
North of Vandenberg, Rancho Guadalupe Dunes County Park will erect a rope fence with signs that designate the areas people must avoid.
Further north, Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area has a huge "exclosure" set up around 300 acres to let birds nest in peace. Other areas are also set aside for the bird, but about 1,200 acres remain available for off-road vehicles. Last week, measures were taken to add driftwood to help make exclosures more cozy to plovers.
Other Central Coast beaches taking measures to protect the bird includes UCSB's Coal Oil Point Reserve. Western snowy plovers can be found on the coast between Washington and Baja California.
The small bird is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But the bird's friends and foes have taken the issue to the courts. A lawsuit filed last month on behalf of the city of Morro Bay and Lompoc Valley's Surf/Ocean Beach Commission is the latest volley fired by those claiming plover protections are based on bad science. Meanwhile, environmental groups had sued saying protections don't go far enough.
The new season opens as officials report a banner year for the tiny bird's 2003 nesting season.
"Last year went really well on Surf Beach," said Nancy Francine, Vandenberg's wildlife biologist. "We've had the highest hatch rate we've ever had, by a long shot, at 67 percent."
When plover protection first began, the base operated under "linear restrictions," essentially a line in the sand designed to keep people near the tide line and away from the dunes area.
Under linear restrictions, the base's highest hatch rate was 41 percent. Under the more severe restrictions, the lowest rate Vandenberg has seen is 48 percent.
"There's a good indication this is working very well for the birds," Francine said.
The stricter rules came after a severe drop in plover population first seen after the 1997-98 El Nino years. But in 1999, the number fell even more. Since then, with the imposition of more stringent rules, the base plover population climbed from 79 to 282 in 2003.
The Air Force's more comprehensive enforcement plan includes stationing monitors at each end of the one-half mile of shoreline when the beach is open. Last year, the base handed out 17 citations, and logged no other rule violations.
But it comes with a hefty price tag. The Air Force spends about $235,000 on various measures to keep the beach open four days a week through nesting season.
At Oceano, 95 nests were reported in 2003, with 63 reported successful. That's up from 35 nests, 25 of which were successful, in 2002. Nests in 2003 produced 162 chicks with at least 107 reaching fledgling age, for a 66 percent success rate. Last year, the beach had a 56 percent success rate.
Birds at a north Vandenberg beach were harmed by a predator -- ravens, which also raided plover nests at other beaches.
Ravens, possibly the same culprits, wreaked havoc on the Guadalupe Dunes nesting season last year. A 33 percent success rate in 2001 was followed by 13 percent in 2003. The 2002 numbers weren't available.
"We had a relatively difficult season last year due to predation from natural predators," said Richerson, the preserve manager. "We're trying to work on improving our predator management ..."
County beach officials are working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a plan to manage predators, including trapping or moving them.
There's one other valuable weapon in the war to protect both people's access to the beach and plovers nesting in the sand.
Surf Beach has implemented a volunteer docent program to educate beach users about the importance of following rules, such as not taking dogs onto the beach. Base officials say docents intercept would-be rulebreakers.
Richerson wants to start a similar program at Guadalupe Beach.
Volunteers could help ensure, for example, that people know kites and Frisbees are banned "because those two objects look like a flying bird to nesting birds," Richerson said. "It looks like a hawk soaring up above the nesting area."
At Goleta's Coal Oil Point, the docent program has captured a 2003 Resource Stewardship award from a national association, noted Kendy Radasky of the Santa Barbara Audubon Society.
"The goal of our program is to educate people about the importance of the plover, about protecting plover populations everywhere," she said. "It's been very successful."
At Coal Oil Point a small army, about 50 volunteers, keeps watch each week.
But as years have passed, beach users have grown to accept the plover guardians. Volunteers also have a spotting scope that lets beach users get a close-up view of the tiny bird.
"It was a little bit difficult at first because a lot of people are used to not having rules on that beach," Radasky said.
Staff writer Janene Scully can be reached at 739-2214 or by e-mail at janscully@pulitzer.net.
http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2004/02/29/news/news18.txt
By Janene Scully -- Staff Writer
2/29/04 On Monday, the tide turns at three area beaches.
For the next seven months, one beach will have limited hours and restricted access, another will have ropes outlining off-limit areas, and a third will make large sections off-limits to off-road vehicles.
Each stretch of coast is operated by a different agency -- the Air Force, the county and the state -- but the one common factor linking the Surf, Guadalupe and Oceano beaches is a federally protected shorebird: the western snowy plover.
Monday marks the opening of the plover's nesting season, which Central Coast residents have started to accept, although grudgingly in many cases, as the beginning of restrictions on the three beaches.
"I found that over the years, people have become much more accustomed to closures and restrictions," said Willie Richerson, preserve manager at Rancho Guadalupe County Park. "This past season we had a very high level of cooperation."
"Our amount of citations given for trespassing have decreased, and that's a great thing," said Laura Gardner, a state parks ecologist at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
While the goal is the same -- protecting the plover population -- the rules for visitors are different at each beach.
At Surf Beach on Vandenberg Air Force Base west of Lompoc, access is available four days a week, Fridays through Mondays, for 10 hours a day on one-half mile of shoreline. The adjacent Ocean Beach is closed.
If more than 50 trespassing violations occur, the military has to close the beach until the end of the plover's nesting season on Sept. 30. Two other base beaches, accessible only to the military and others with base access, also have restrictions.
Because the beaches are on federal land, they must meet more stringent requirements under the Endangered Species Act.
North of Vandenberg, Rancho Guadalupe Dunes County Park will erect a rope fence with signs that designate the areas people must avoid.
Further north, Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area has a huge "exclosure" set up around 300 acres to let birds nest in peace. Other areas are also set aside for the bird, but about 1,200 acres remain available for off-road vehicles. Last week, measures were taken to add driftwood to help make exclosures more cozy to plovers.
Other Central Coast beaches taking measures to protect the bird includes UCSB's Coal Oil Point Reserve. Western snowy plovers can be found on the coast between Washington and Baja California.
The small bird is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But the bird's friends and foes have taken the issue to the courts. A lawsuit filed last month on behalf of the city of Morro Bay and Lompoc Valley's Surf/Ocean Beach Commission is the latest volley fired by those claiming plover protections are based on bad science. Meanwhile, environmental groups had sued saying protections don't go far enough.
The new season opens as officials report a banner year for the tiny bird's 2003 nesting season.
"Last year went really well on Surf Beach," said Nancy Francine, Vandenberg's wildlife biologist. "We've had the highest hatch rate we've ever had, by a long shot, at 67 percent."
When plover protection first began, the base operated under "linear restrictions," essentially a line in the sand designed to keep people near the tide line and away from the dunes area.
Under linear restrictions, the base's highest hatch rate was 41 percent. Under the more severe restrictions, the lowest rate Vandenberg has seen is 48 percent.
"There's a good indication this is working very well for the birds," Francine said.
The stricter rules came after a severe drop in plover population first seen after the 1997-98 El Nino years. But in 1999, the number fell even more. Since then, with the imposition of more stringent rules, the base plover population climbed from 79 to 282 in 2003.
The Air Force's more comprehensive enforcement plan includes stationing monitors at each end of the one-half mile of shoreline when the beach is open. Last year, the base handed out 17 citations, and logged no other rule violations.
But it comes with a hefty price tag. The Air Force spends about $235,000 on various measures to keep the beach open four days a week through nesting season.
At Oceano, 95 nests were reported in 2003, with 63 reported successful. That's up from 35 nests, 25 of which were successful, in 2002. Nests in 2003 produced 162 chicks with at least 107 reaching fledgling age, for a 66 percent success rate. Last year, the beach had a 56 percent success rate.
Birds at a north Vandenberg beach were harmed by a predator -- ravens, which also raided plover nests at other beaches.
Ravens, possibly the same culprits, wreaked havoc on the Guadalupe Dunes nesting season last year. A 33 percent success rate in 2001 was followed by 13 percent in 2003. The 2002 numbers weren't available.
"We had a relatively difficult season last year due to predation from natural predators," said Richerson, the preserve manager. "We're trying to work on improving our predator management ..."
County beach officials are working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a plan to manage predators, including trapping or moving them.
There's one other valuable weapon in the war to protect both people's access to the beach and plovers nesting in the sand.
Surf Beach has implemented a volunteer docent program to educate beach users about the importance of following rules, such as not taking dogs onto the beach. Base officials say docents intercept would-be rulebreakers.
Richerson wants to start a similar program at Guadalupe Beach.
Volunteers could help ensure, for example, that people know kites and Frisbees are banned "because those two objects look like a flying bird to nesting birds," Richerson said. "It looks like a hawk soaring up above the nesting area."
At Goleta's Coal Oil Point, the docent program has captured a 2003 Resource Stewardship award from a national association, noted Kendy Radasky of the Santa Barbara Audubon Society.
"The goal of our program is to educate people about the importance of the plover, about protecting plover populations everywhere," she said. "It's been very successful."
At Coal Oil Point a small army, about 50 volunteers, keeps watch each week.
But as years have passed, beach users have grown to accept the plover guardians. Volunteers also have a spotting scope that lets beach users get a close-up view of the tiny bird.
"It was a little bit difficult at first because a lot of people are used to not having rules on that beach," Radasky said.
Staff writer Janene Scully can be reached at 739-2214 or by e-mail at janscully@pulitzer.net.
http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2004/02/29/news/news18.txt