Stare into the eye of the worst enemy of a Saturday afternoon on the beach.
Forget about going to the beach in East Hampton this summer. With the recent changes in East Hampton’s town government, plovers are going to shutdown the beaches. All of them. This is not hysterical ranting on a rainy Friday. We predicted the cancellation of the Fourth of July fireworks 2 months in advance last year, and we’re 100% confident with this prediction as well.
For those unaware, piping plovers are a small, endangered coastal bird, which stop on the their migratory route to breed in the Hamptons. Any place a plover nests, a fence must be erected to protect them. Kill a plover and you’re looking at a huge fine. “Harass” a plover and you’re looking at a huge fine. Get too close to a plover and you’ll be considered to be harassing them and get a huge fine. It’s no joke. And past plover protectors have been very active in their pursuit of offenders. You’ve been warned.
In years past, the plovers shutdown the fireworks in East Hampton because they were nesting on Main Beach near the launch site. Plovers apparently, are neither patriotic, nor do they like fireworks. You also can’t have failed to notice all the signs posted on fencing around their nesting areas. And all of this fencing was put in place by employees and volunteers of the East Hampton Town Natural Resources Department and the town trustees. And here’s the problem.
The Natural Resources Department has been restructured and Larry Penny, its former director, is out of a job. Take a deep breath before you read the rest of this paragraph because it gets confusing. The Natural Resources Department is now a part of the Planning Department. Formerly, the town trustees (who oversee the beaches and wetlands in East Hampton, but are not a federally recognized body) and the Natural Resources Department would jointly oversee plover protection. With the elimination of Mr. Penny, plover protection will fall to Brad Loewen, a member of the town board, and Lisa D’Andrea, who works for the Natural Resources Department, and she will answer to Loewen and only Loewen. (This was announced back in March, but it was March and we weren’t paying attention.) Nobody told the town trustees about this change though, so they were a little confused—not to mention angry—at their most recent meeting. And here’s the important wrinkle: the federal Fish and Wildlife Bureau is the agency that checks in to make sure that plover protocols are being followed and has final say over what beaches remain open or closed. If the protocols—and there’s an entire book of them—are being followed, fine. If they’re not, then we’ve got problems. And right now it doesn’t sound like they are.
A Fish and Wildlife officer was in touch with Diane McNally, who was the presiding officer of the town trustees most recent meeting, and apparently Fish and Wildlife is worried that there wasn’t protective fencing in place already. They had emailed Larry Penny about it, but that didn’t help because Larry Penny isn’t around anymore. Which means that somebody better get some fences up soon or we’re in for trouble with Fish and Wildlife.
Another thing to be aware of is that there was a blessing and a curse to previous plover protection. The protection was good—very good—so there was lot of beach space closed off, which was bad for beachgoers. But this vigilance also let Fish and Wildlife take a relaxed approach to beach closures because it was being done so well. It’s the virtuous circle from hell: Good protection meant more birds. More birds meant less beach. But less beach was better than no beach. “‘We got down to the minimum,’ [McNally] said, ‘but because the bird population has expanded, we have expanded areas.’”
So what all of these changes mean is that there will be fewer monitors and more birds. And Fish and Wildlife will likely be stepping up their monitoring of the situation because it looks like we’re already behind schedule. And Fish and Wildlife really doesn’t care how much you paid for your summer rental, because it’s easier for them to shutdown an entire beach than to try and figure out the smallest possible area to shutdown. Coupled with the pissing contest that’s going on between the town trustees, the town board, Larry Penny and the Natural Resources Department, and we’re looking at a perfect storm of petty bickering and finger pointing that’s going to leave the job of protecting the plovers while minimizing the headaches to residents and summer visitors unfinished or poorly done at best. And then say hello to Fish and Wildlife.
And they will shutdown beaches. Trust us on that one. If you thought plovers were a headache in the past—just wait until you see what happens this summer. Somebody get Della Femina on the phone.
A Shift on Plover Watch [East Hampton Star]
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