[ Excerpt from: "Snowy Plover debate reignites," By Joshu Molina, DAILY SOUND, Feb. 05, 2009 ]

Reigniting the debate over the protection of the Western Snowy Plover, environmentalists are pressuring the city of Goleta to take swift action to protect the threatened shorebird along the Ellwood Mesa Beach.

Only about 1,800 of the diminutive white and tan birds remain on the Pacific Coast and with nesting season near activists are becoming increasingly concerned that Goleta officials have not done enough to protect their habitat.

Ellwood Mesa Beach is a popular destination for people to let their dogs roam free off their leashes, but dogs are also known to eat plover eggs and disrupt their habitat. Joggers and others are also guilty of unknowingly trampling over nests and eggs.

“It is important to protect the Pacific Coast population of the Western Snowy Plover,” said Nicole Cerra, president of Shorelines and Watersheds, an environmental nonprofit group. ” Like myself, I don't believe that most people would like to knowingly contribute to the extinction of a species.”

Serra spoke out about the issue at a recent Goleta City Council meeting and authored a letter to City Manager Dan Singer outlining her group’s strong concerns about Goleta’s inability to protect plover habitat.

“This lack of action by the City of Goleta to protect our local, natural resources is of grave concern to Shorelines & Watersheds,” Cerra wrote. “Western Snowy Plovers are a sensitive species. They require undisturbed nesting and wintering areas in order to survive.”

The city of Goleta is in the process of responding to the environmental group’s questions.

The drama over the plover stretches back more than three years. As part of a complex land swap agreement to preserve Ellwood Mesa from development, the California Coastal Commission granted a coastal development permit in 2005, that required Goleta to take steps to protect the plover habitat. The plover is listed as threatened with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Among the requirements were for city to prohibit dogs and horses in some key areas and install permanent signage.

Singer said that Goleta has taken some steps to protect the plovers, but high costs, opposition from dog owners, and questions about whether plover nesting actually exists along the roughly two-mile stretch of beach within Goleta’s jurisdiction, have slowed the city down.

“We don’t have snowy plovers nesting on our beaches,” he said. “Nesting doesn’t currently exist. Maybe that’s because we have dogs running around. I don’t know. We don’t exactly have perfect conditions.”

But the lack of an official habitat management plan is why activists suspect that plovers aren’t obviously nesting in the area. They point to the success of UCSB’s Coal Oil Point Reserve nearby as testimony that a program can work.

At Coal Oil Point, docents monitor the plover habitat area year-round and the program has become a statewide model for plover preservation and habitat restoration.

Goleta, however, is still struggling.

“I don’t think we are doing much in the way of enforcement,” said Margaret Connell, a Goleta City Councilwoman, who suggested partnering with Coal Oil Point to increase a presence on the beach.

An attempt to adopt a Western Snowy Plover Habitat Management Plan failed in 2006 because of vocal community opposition from dog owners. The Goleta City Council also cited preliminary estimates that a management plan would cost upwards of $200,000.

“It would require money that we don’t have,” Singer said.

Goleta, Singer said, has taken small steps to protect the plover habitat. But it hasn’t been easy.

Signs were vandalized. People shot through the signs with guns, leaving bullet holes. Others wrote four-letter obscenities on the signs.

“There’s been a real tension that exists in the community,” Singer said.

Still Goleta has increased trash cleanup on the beach. Garbage attracts skunks and raccoons, which are natural predators of the plover. Park maintenance managers are regularly monitoring the area.

Goleta recently purchased bicycles to allow officers to navigate the area and it plans to increase ticketing if necessary.

“We are really going to increase our presence there and that will spur people from misbehaving,” Singer said.

When it comes to increasing protections, Shorelines and Watersheds may have some backup on the Goleta City Council.

Goleta Councilman Ed Easton regularly volunteers as a docent at Coal Oil Point and believes that protecting the shorebird is paramount.

“It’s like giving blood,” Easton said. “When you see these little critters start hatching and running around you know personally you are making a difference, and that feels good.”

With nesting season going into full-swing in March, Easton and the Goleta City Council may be forced to take some action. Environmentalists and elected officials in the region are taking notice.

Many, including Cerra of the Shorelines and Watersheds, openly suggest that Goleta’s $200,000 estimate of a management plan is an inflated number. Fencing, docents and some increased oversight would cost much less and still protect plovers

“Two-hundred-thousand dollars would be a limousine management plan, but we don’t need a limousine plan; we need a Prius plan,” said Das Williams, an environmental activist and Santa Barbara City Councilman, who frequently serves as a plover docent at Coal Oil Point.

He said there’s a way for everyone to be happy.

“People can continue to use the beach, and plovers can nest if there’s an effective management plan,” Williams said.

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