Beach
Access Issues
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June 4, 2008
Newly hatched piping plover chicks close Ramp 44 and all Point access for now
By IRENE NOLAN
Ramp 44 to Cape Point was closed this morning because of newly hatched piping plover chicks.
Also, for now, the Park Service has closed pedestrian access to Cape
Point. That situation will be reassessed as soon as park staff
can properly mark overlapping bird areas, perhaps in a day or so.
The chicks are from one of two three-egg nests that have been
identified at Cape Point. A National Park Service biologist observed
one of the chicks yesterday, and park resource staff saw the other two
today.
Under the terms of the consent decree that settled a lawsuit by
environmental groups over ORV access at the seashore, the park was
required to extend the buffer around the nest by 1,000 meters (3,281 or
about the length of 11 football fields) in all directions.
That buffer extends past Ramp 44, so that ramp is no longer open to off-road vehicles.
Ramp 43 is still open and ORVs have access to .2 of a mile of beach
there. A closure between Ramps 43 and 44 for American oystercatchers
exhibiting breeding behavior has been removed.
Before the closure, ORVs could go out on Ramp 44 to use about .2 of a
mile of beach that was open to the south toward the Point before there
is a full beach closure for a pair of American oystercatchers
exhibiting breeding behavior. Also, before today, Cape Point was
open to pedestrians, who could wade in the water around the
oystercatcher closure and hike out to the Point. Or they could
get to the Point by boat, motorized or non-motorized. A number of
folks have been wading or kayaking to get to the popular surf fishing
spot.
That will no longer be possible, at least for the time being.
The consent decree does allow for pedestrian access during daylight
hours in a narrow corridor that would extend landward 10 meters (33
feet) from the mean high tide line. However, the pedestrian
corridor must be at least 300 meters (984 feet) from the piping plover
nest.
In this case, the nest is closer to the water than 300 meters, so there
can be no pedestrian corridor along the beach to Cape Point.
There may be some open
beach at the tip of Cape Point, but Cyndy Holda, assistant to superintendent and
community liaison for the park, said there will be no access by any means until
park staff can get to the area and properly measure and mark the overlapping
bird closures in the area.
That
could happen tomorrow, and at that time, folks may be allowed to launch
motorized or non-motorized boats from near Ramp 43 or from the South
Beach to get to the area at the Point that is still open.
“The overlapping closures,” Holda said, “compound and
complicate our ability to allow access and reduce the amount of open
area outside the required buffers of the Consent Decree.”
The consent decree stipulates that the Park Service may modify ORV
access within the 1,000 meter buffer two weeks after the chicks hatch
-- if a 300 meter buffer is maintained between the chicks and the
ORVs. In this case, the chicks must be monitored from dawn until
dusk by park staff in this “modified” area, and ORVs will
not be allowed in each day until the location of the chicks is
determined and an adequate buffer is in place.
“We will be watching the Cape Point area closely. We
realize what a popular fishing spot it is for many folks,” Holda
said. “NPS monitors will closely watch the movements of
plover chicks. Deliberate violations of the resource closures
result in immediate expansion of buffers as required under the Consent
Decree.”
When they move to forage, she added, it may be possible to open more beach to ORVs and pedestrians.
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