Sunday, May 15, 2011

Plan to fence off plovers’ nesting habitat takes baby steps toward flight


After years of planning and heated public debate, the snowy plovers along the dunes of Pacifica’s State Beach may finally have a safe place to nest.

Eventually.

City council members last month approved a plan that would fence off plover nesting boundaries and provide educational signs along the beach, city officials said.

But after three years of work, the plan to protect the Pacifica Western Snowy Plover still has several more hurdles to overcome before the fences become a reality.

The plan calls for symbolic fences along Highway 1’s bicycle path that would discourage beach-goers from entering the beach through the sand dunes where the endangered shorebird nests, according to Michael Perez, Pacifica’s Parks, Beaches & Recreation department director. Additional educational signage on the beach as well as regulations for beach activities in the area north of Crespi Drive, such as surf contests, are also included in the plan.

Posted by Steve Sinai

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice. just what everyone is asking for more regulations. Regulations=more government agencies=higher taxes=more employee will be hired=more overextended pensions and benefits=higher taxes=higher taxes=higher taxes. It never ends. Snowy Plovers dont belong at Lindamar Beach. I hope the Fox destroys all habitat and the big birds drop down and snatch the eggs.

Anonymous said...

Plovers have been there for a longtime and they don't need a bunch of silly old do-gooders to take care of them at the public's expense and loss of recreation area. Any doubts this whole thing is a waste of time and precious resources?? Open Space Committee involvement guarantees we're dealing with the absurd and arrogant. They want to return the entire beach to what they think is its original condition, ie, no people. And they don't care about loss of revenue or loss of a public recreation beach.

Kathy Meeh said...

Anon (9:40pm) regulations=protection. How do you therefore make a leap to higher taxes? Government representing a civilized society regulates. Law=regulation.

Linda Mar Beach is public, that includes the plovers. Yet, you hope plovers would be eaten by Foxes, and big birds would snatch their eggs. Well, have you considered snowy plovers are an endangered species, humans are not?

ian butler said...

Thanks Kathy for taking on the yahoos. Its comments like them that give anonymous a bad name.

The fact is there are now only about 200 nesting pairs of plovers in the bay area, and there will eventually be none without sensible protections. The protections that the council came up with are modest, common sense steps that will hopefully prevent more draconian changes in the future.

Kathy Meeh said...

Anon, kindly control yourself and curb your vulgar words, which replace language and makes you look well..... Ian suggested, "yahoo" in his (709) comment "its comments like them that give anonymous a bad name."

Anyhow, I think you and some extreme environmentalists have a lot in common in wanting to take our "environment" back to the 1790's.

Steve Sinai said...

Kathy, it's better just to mark those kinds of comments as spam and get rid of them (which I did,) rather than engage the crazies.

Kathy Meeh said...

You're right, thank you Steve.

Anonymous said...

Good to know the City Council is willing to do more for the Snowy Plover then the crumbling infrastructure around town.

Kathy Meeh said...

Not really, NO MONEY, see the article link. "... there is no timetable for when that will happen. Even if the project wins full approval, however, finding funding for the fencing and signage could be tough. 'It will have to be grants, because there isn’t any city money,' said Pacifica City Manager Stephen Rhodes."

Besides, that how we fix everything in Pacifica.

Miwok Mike said...

I understand that Snowy Plover Pudding is pretty good! Google the recipe. mmmmmmmmmmmm

Oh, and Butler, how about documenting your source for "only about 200" pairs of Plovers nesting in the Bay Area.

Anonymous said...

MM@501, No problem. Anybody can use rent-a-scientist and get any "scientific proof" they need to prove their point. Seriously, the so-called proof is observational only. No scientific proof exists that any of these proposed protections will help the plovers. And never forget that people are Number One on the list of alleged threats to the plover. People.
What do you think this is really about?

Ohlone Ollie said...

I give up. What is it about?