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[The Trash Heap]

Said I was done posting LTTEs, but Big John's deserves it.

Today's great article was long in the making, and I much regret that Brandi has left us to go to work for NASA. She did a good job reporting both sides of the issues today, as always. I also regret not being able to attach the nifty map that accompanies the article so you could see the spatial relationships. Maybe one of the recipients will be so good as to forward that.

It isn't just the shift in the old pattern of beach traffic that threatens the piping plover. We already knew that its habitat was one of the sites chosen for future disposal of sand from Packery Channel dredging, a fact taken into account by consultation between the Corps and the FWS when the project was proposed. However, since I wrote the May 15 letter to the Senator and the Congressman, I discovered the GLO is suing to eliminate half the state's piping plover critical habitats (including the ones near Packery), the City is has applied for a Corps permit to groom the island beaches (it previously did so w/o the necessary permit), and the City has for a second time encouraged a massive event on the plover habitat north of Packery (Spring Break was the first; C-Sculptures the second). It's the cumulative impacts of these and similar perturbations that I'm trying to get someone to address. And no, I haven't forgotten the sea turtles; I leave those in more capable hands.
Caller.com

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URL: http://www.caller.com/ccct/letters_to_the_editor/article/0,1641,CCCT_841_4770899,00.html
Letters to the Editor: 06.13.06
June 13, 2006

Protecting rights

Here we go again. The people with something to gain monetarily are again using slander and libel to try to make those for re-opening our beach to traffic look bad in the eyes of the public.

The large majority of us were for restorations to the seawall, Whataburger Field, the American Bank Center, and re-opening Packery Channel. All of these were very positive projects. Nor do we oppose Mr. Schexnailder developing his land.

What we are opposed to is merely giving up our right to access our beaches. We even offered the compromise of a bollard system, used successfully in Port Aransas to make the beaches family-friendly and still allow excellent access for all. The very group telling you we are naysayers to all development turned it down. More lies from those chasing dollars.

Do they really care about safety and equal access for all? Why is a bollard system not good enough for them? What is their real motive? What do they gain? The answers are clear.

Follow your hearts, and sign the petitions.

John Sullivan

Caller.com

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URL: http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_811_4770906,00.html
Man pleads case of piping plover in beach debate

By Brandi Dean Caller-Times
June 13, 2006

Johnny French is trying to take the beach access debate to the next level - the federal level.

And his rally cry is the call of the piping plover.

French is a member of the Beach Access Coalition, the group petitioning to have an election on whether a 7,200-foot stretch of Padre Island beach should be closed to traffic. But because he believes taking cars off that beach might further endanger an already threatened species, he's decided the local petition doesn't go far enough. He sent letters to Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, asking them to investigate the matter.

"I'm trying to make a federal case of this thing because the other avenues with the city and the state haven't gone anywhere," French said.

Spokesmen for both Hutchison and Ortiz said they could not comment very much on letters they received from constituents. Cathy Travis, press secretary for Ortiz, said that in most cases, when a letter is received, they're read and a legislative assistant who handles the issue will research it, talk to the congressman about it and draft a response.

"I know that one of our legislative assistants has been e-mailing back and forth with (French)," she said. "We're researching it."

Piping plovers, which winter in Texas, have been listed as a threatened species since 1986. French, who is a retired biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said they don't spend time on the beach where vehicles are being banned, but he believes the ban will affect them, all the same.

When people are unable to drive on that beach, French believes more people will begin driving on the beach between Zahn Road and the boundary of Mustang Island State Park. Piping plovers don't use that beach often, he said, but it's been designated a critical habitat for them. The birds have very short legs, so during high tides in the middle of the winter, the places they can go to feed are limited. This is one area where the water stays shallow enough for them.

So if cars that might otherwise drive on the 7,200 feet of beach slated to become pedestrian only move to this stretch of beach, they could run off the piping plovers. And French believes that means one of two things - closing two beaches to traffic or not closing any.

"The easiest thing to do to protect the plover is not to close the beach," French said. "But we might have to close more beach instead."

Allan Strand, field supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department's Corpus Christi office, said that was all speculation. There's a chance that it might not bother the bird at all, he said. An analysis would have to be done to know for sure.

"We really have no idea what increase in traffic there would be," Strand said. "There's all kinds of folks that try to pull up different species concerns whenever there's a project going on that's controversial. I don't see it as being a big problem, but without doing an analysis, that's just speculation."

For now, Strand said, the department would take a wait-and-see attitude. If the beach is closed to traffic, they'll do an analysis then.

Contact Metro Desk at 886-3662 or HYPERLINK mailto:metrodesk@caller.com metrodesk@caller.com
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The Trash Heap Has Spoken!
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