Editor’s note: This letter was sent to members of Ocean City Council.
To the Editor:
Thank you to the council people who responded to my calls or texts. For the sake of time, I am going to respond to everyone at once regarding the NJDEP’s Shore Protection Rule which is pending proposal. After speaking with numerous people, watching the NJDEP’s public session, and viewing the recent City Council meeting, I’d like to address some of what I believe are simple misunderstandings that seem to have been spread around town. I’ll use a great example of cooperation between Ocean City and N.J. Fish & Wildlife from this past summer, involving one particular at-risk species, to help make my points.
The piping plover is one of many beach nesting birds that overwinter in the southern U.S. and as far south as the Bahamas. They migrate north in the spring to their historic breeding grounds along Atlantic Coast beaches, Ocean City being one such destination.
Obviously, human encroachment up and down the coast has drastically reduced the available habitat for birds like these – Ocean City is not the empty sandbar it was 100 years ago – and this loss of habitat is one reason that has led to their current endangered status in N.J.
For the past 20 odd years Ocean City has worked with N.J. Fish & Wildlife under existing permits and legislation to protect these shorebirds without having to close any beaches on a whim. The NJDEP’s duty to protect shore species has already been legislatively agreed upon under the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Conservation Act and NJSA 13:1D 155. This statute is the legal authority. You don’t create a government agency to address a problem and then turn around and micro-legislate every one of their decisions. The current rules being considered are merely adding the tools necessary for N.J. Fish & Wildlife to carry out the job they were already charged with by the Legislature.
Over the years, Ocean City’s nesting shorebirds have been pushed to the less busy north and south ends of the island. But this past summer, for the first time in 13 years, a pair of piping plovers decided to make a nest at the busy 16th Street beach.
A plover’s nest is nothing more than a small depression in the sand. Imagine taking the back of a clam shell and pressing it in the sand. That indentation is the nest. They lay four eggs and then both parents take turns incubating and tirelessly guarding the nest for the next four weeks. However, having evolved on empty barrier islands, it doesn’t take much to spook them. People, dogs, vehicles, fireworks, drones, or predators can cause them to abandon their nest and eggs.
And it doesn’t get easier once the chicks hatch. Within hours of hatching the chicks have to feed themselves. They are the size of a cotton ball and weigh as little as eight pennies. They have to dodge people and their vehicles, foxes, seagulls, crows, ghost crabs, cats and dogs, to get to the high tide line where they feed off the material that has washed up (if it hasn’t already been removed by beach rakes) or to the water’s edge to eat. They don’t need to do this just once, but all day. If they don’t get there, they simply won’t survive. A crowded summer beach makes it that much harder as they can easily be stepped on or run over. The chances of chicks surviving in this situation are pretty slim. That was the situation at 16th Street this past summer and if ever there was a time to close a beach on a whim, that was it.
But N.J. Fish & Wildlife didn’t swoop in and close down the beach. With a long history of excellent cooperation with the city they were confident that they could work with the city to protect the plovers without having to close the beach. As a frequent volunteer on the beach I saw firsthand how everyone from the mayor to the public works crew did all that was asked of them to give the plover chicks their best chance at surviving the summer crowds. Between the support from the city and the enthusiasm from the public, it was an incredible process to witness.
A simple reading of the rule, the information provided by the NJDEP, and past experience in the city, make it clear that NJDEP’s main priority is not restricting access to public beaches. In fact, a main part of their responsibility is to protect and safeguard public access to tidal waters and shorelines under N.J.S.A. 13:D-150.
For many reasons, closing beaches is simply something they are not eager to do, but even if they had to as a last resort, they wouldn’t do it “willy nilly.” There are criteria that need to be met and there’s a process regarding potential beach closures. For example, there is a 30-day notice period during which stakeholders can work with the DEP to avoid or lessen the effects of closure before enacted, and even an appeals process. It is not a process that can be triggered by a few bird tracks in the sand.
Last year there was a total of eight plover pairs in Ocean City. Only one pair successfully nested in the center of town. So we are talking about one nest in the busy part of town in the last 13 years. The fear that beaches up and down the island will be closed on a whim is unfounded. There are simply not enough birds to make that happen. Conversely, my understanding and takeaway from all the provided information is that for towns like Ocean City, with beach management plans and permits in place, nothing much would change under the proposed new rules.
This brings us to another storyline I’ve heard repeated, which is since Ocean City already has a beach management plan and other processes in place and works well with Fish & Wildlife, any further protections would be redundant or a threat to home rule.
Well, those talking points might make some sense if Ocean City’s plans and processes extended to the rest of New Jersey’s coastlines, but they don’t. Despite the processes in place here, and Ocean City’s best efforts, our state’s shorebirds somehow keep ending up on endangered species lists.
The science is clear. Monitoring of N.J.’s piping plovers has been happening since 1987. That is 36 years of data. What the numbers have to say is not encouraging. Plovers need to fledge an average of 1.5 chicks/per breeding pair to recover the population. This year’s average was .53 chicks, the lowest survival rate in 15 years. Productivity has declined at every site and region statewide.
The populations of many shoreline species are in decline. I’m no rocket scientist but I would like to think that if I had a process in place, regardless of how many years it took to develop, and it kept failing, I might welcome a little duplication of effort. But what has been dramatically described as government overreach is really a local government under reach problem.
The NJDEP and Ocean City can’t protect our shores alone. We have statewide problems that require uniform statewide policies or any environmental gains made in OC will simply be lost elsewhere in the state. This problem cannot be solved by home rule. Not every shore town has a beach management plan or CAFRA permits in place. Every shore community needs to have the same level of protection efforts or our current failures will continue. The proposed new rules will help bring everybody up to those levels.
The relationship between people and beach nesting birds can be a cooperative one. There are cities that fully embrace beach nesting birds, have learned to “Share the Shore” and work very hard to protect them. They capitalize on the opportunities that come from being a site fortunate enough to still have endangered species on its shoreline.
If plovers, after a 1,000 mile migration, are being forced to attempt to nest on a crowded Ocean City beach, it means they’ve run out of better options elsewhere. Their future is our future and objecting to rules designed in part to protect them is objecting to both futures.
Rhonda VanWingerden
Ocean City
