The expected media release from the environmental groups that sued the National Park Service over its management of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore arrived today.
The headline is as expected also: ?Nesting birds and turtles break records at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.?
And it?s all true.
As of today, there were 147 turtle nests on the seashore, the most ever documented here.
Fifteen piping plovers fledged this summer, the highest since record keeping began in 1992. And 30 oystercatcher chicks fledged including four on Green Island in Oregon Inlet.
?We are heartened by these impressive nesting numbers,? said Walker Golder, deputy director of Audubon North Carolina. ?The unique waterbirds and sea turtles that depend on Cape Hatteras are a vital part of what makes the Seashore a national treasure. These nesting numbers illustrate that vehicles and wildlife can share the beach as long as sound, science-based protection measures are in place.?
?The success of this nesting season underscores the need for a long-term ORV management plan at the Seashore,? said Jason Rylander, staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. ?Our parks should be safe places for wildlife in addition to providing recreational opportunities for visitors.?
Hatteras and Ocracoke islanders and visitors are also heartened by this year?s nesting success.
?Everybody is pleased that we?ve had good nesting results this year, brought on by ideal weather, low predation, and minimal human disturbance,? said John Couch, president of the Outer Banks Preservation Association, a group that advocates for continued, reasonable beach access.?
However, Couch and others are not willing to chalk the records up to the court-sanctioned consent decree that settled the lawsuit against the Park Service. It became effective on April 30, 2008, and put many more restrictions on ORV and pedestrian access, including extensive buffers and closure for birds.
The media release was distributed by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society in the lawsuit.
The release does note that a variety of factors, including weather and predation, can affect nesting success. However, it implies, as have all the SELC releases, that the restrictions of the consent decree, which ?employs science-based protection measures? has brought about these nesting successes.
?Human disturbance is a primary factor in beach nesting success that is largely within the control of the Park Service,? said Julie Youngman, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. ?We believe the effective management of beach driving contributed to this year?s tremendous success.?
Again, most islanders and visitors understand that ORV driving must be managed during the nesting season ? and it has been for decades ? but not to the degree that SELC, Audubon, and Defenders would like to see.
?I wouldn?t say (human disturbance) is a primary cause of nesting success. Multiple factors contribute to failures and multiple factors lead to successes,? said Britta Muiznieks, seashore biologist. ?You have to deal with the multiple factors.?
While the more stringent restrictions of the consent decree, giving plover chicks a buffer the size of a couple aircraft carriers, contributed to their success, so did ideal weather and a minimum of predation.
According to Muiznieks and lead Hatteras Island biologist Doug McGee, the piping plovers arrived early and nested early, and the wet spring kept the foraging areas near the ponds moist. There was plenty of moist foraging area for the broods and not as much competition for the ideal areas. Also there were no spring northeasters, as there have been in most past years.
All 15 of the fledged piping plover chicks came from nests on Cape Point, and most early nests. There were no nests on Bodie Island or Hatteras Inlet spits. And no chicks were fledged on Ocracoke, where the eggs or the chicks were lost to predation, probably ghost crabs.
Muiznieks also said that the same number of oystercatchers as usual nested on the seashore, but more chicks fledged. They also benefitted from the weather and lower predation.
So, yes, it?s been a good year here, and we hope to have more of them ? without such extensive closures.
After all, as John Couch noted, the past two summers under the consent decree yielded only average numbers of fledged piping plover and oystercatcher chicks.
So one record year does not make a trend.
I also think it?s interesting to note that SELC counted the four fledged oystercatcher chicks on Green Island in Oregon Inlet. At a status conference on the consent decree, called by federal District Court Judge Terrence Boyle in March, Derb Carter, attorney for SELC, noted to the judge that NPS maps show Green Island. He wanted to clarify that SELC had not counted bird activity on Green Island because they didn?t consider it part of the seashore. At least, not until now.
The environmental groups have continuously refused to recognize nesting activity of any of the dredge spoil islands or other small islands off the seashore.
I also wrote a blog earlier this month about the increase in sea turtles nesting along the entire southeast coast. It?s not happening just at Cape Hatteras.
I?m not going to go over points that have been made many times about SELC media releases, the science of bird buffers, and other issues. I?ve listed some of the many blogs I?ve written on the subject if you?d like to check them out again.
And get ready for newspapers across the North Carolina and elsewhere to reprint the SELC as gospel ? probably word for word ? without checking out a word of it or calling any beach access advocates for their take on the record-breaking nesting season.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Sea turtle nesting is up all along the Southeast Coast:
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/pivot/entry.php?id=106#body
A common sense approach to managing sea turtles?Shooting the Breeze, the Editor?s Blog, May 25, 2010
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/pivot/entry.php?id=95#body
Sea Turtles nested in record numbers in 2008:
http://islandfreepress.org/2008Archives/08.12.2008-SeaTurtlesAreNestingOnTheSeashoreInRecordNumbers.html
More on the misleading media campaign to declare the consent decree a success
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/pivot/entry.php?id=61#body
Another misinformed and misleading SELC media release
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/pivot/entry.php?id=60
We?re asking but they aren?t telling
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/pivot/entry.php?id=83#body
Keep asking them to show us the science
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/pivot/entry.php?id=82
They are showing us the science?
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/archives/archive_2010-m03.php
They are showing us the science? Part Two
http://islandfreepress.org/PivotBlog/pivot/entry.php?id=86#body
