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NC Wildlife Commission Says "No" To Town's New Beach Rake; Could Kill Sea Turtles
Print this pageCouncil Expresses Frustration Calling For Possible Legal Action; Carolina Beach To Sell New Beach Rake To Myrtle Beach
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| Click on image for larger view... (Pictured Above:) The State of North Carolina refuses to issue a permit to the Town of Carolina Beach to operate a new "beach rake" to clean the beach during the busy summer season. The state claims the rake could threaten sea turtle nests even though the Town has a program to monitor those nests. Now the Town hopes Myrtle Beach, S.C. will purchase the rake... | |||||||||
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By Willard H. Killough III
Managing Editor
editor@islandgazette.net
CAROLINA BEACH - The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources has informed the Town of Carolina Beach they will not permit regular operation of a new “beach rake” due to the possibility of harming sea turtle nests and shore birds.
The Town hopes to sell the rake to Myrtle Beach, SC for $39,740.00 - the same amount it paid earlier this year.
The issue came before the Council at their March 31st workshop meeting during discussion regarding renewal of the Town’s annual contract for sea turtle monitoring.
During the meeting, Town Manager Calvin Peck, Jr. explained, “We have an obligation... in view of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission... to have a turtle monitoring program in place essentially to comply with the Endangered Species Act. Permits are issued by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. It takes a certain amount of training and experience to qualify. Last year the Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project was the permit holder and did that monitoring for us. We have asked them this year to extend it to cover Freeman Park. They have agreed to do that.”
Peck explained, “We are going to put one of our employees through the training and make sure they gather some experience so that if something happens in the future, we will have a fall back position.” Peck explained, “I recommend that we enter into a contract for monitoring sea turtle nesting... including monitoring and relocation of nests.”
During the discussion regarding renewal of the monitoring contract, Council member Gary Doetsch pointed out the next item on the agenda was to list the new “beach rake” as "excess" equipment.
Doetsch explained, “A gentleman in the Wildlife Commission has some concerns about it endangering” sea turtles. He expressed frustration with the NC Wildlife Commission because of their opposition to the use of the new beach rake.
Doetsch explained that if the Town is denied a permit to operate the beach rake, as for the sea turtle monitoring program, “If [the NC Wildlife Commission] wants to move the nests, they should move them. I don’t think that part of the contract that we are paying for should include the relocation of nests within Carolina Beach. If the state wants to do it, let them do it.”
Council member Joel Macon agreed stating, “I’m not willing to give this issue up. I’m not willing to back down. If we are paying for somebody to ride out there every day ... and marking the nests... marked and protected or relocated, what does running a rake have to do with anything?”
Peck explained the NC Wildlife Resources Commission Agent, Mathew Godfrey, “feels there will be a certain percentage of nests that will be missed by the monitoring project, and historically there have been some small percentage that are missed. Therefore, we would not know where those [nests] would be and in operating the beach rake, we could pass over a burried nest.”
In a memo to the Division of Coastal Management from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission dated February 21, 2005, Bennett Wayne explained, “Primary impacts of concern for the proposed beach raking are interference with sea turtle nesting, interference with beach nesting birds, and removal of native organic material in the wrack line that supports the invertebrate food base of migrating shorebirds and also provides protection for roosting birds.”
Bennett explained, “These impacts would obviously be considerably increased if beach cleaning was done on a repetitive basis over a given season. Impacts to nesting sea turtles and birds can be avoided by adhering to their respective moratoria. The Town should also vigorously pursue leaving beneficial native material on the beach while cleaning the beach of litter and wastes.”
In a memo to the Town Council, Mr. Peck explained the issue stating, “Matthew Godfrey, Wildlife Resources Commission agent, has objected to our CAMA permit request to operate the beach rake during the turtle season. Therefore, it is the intention of the Division of Coastal Resources to issue a permit for a single annual cleaning once a year during the period November through April. I do not see how it is a wise use of our limited resources to operate this equipment in such a non-cost effective manner. Therefore, I intend to recommend that we cease the beach rake program for the foreseeable future.”
Peck explained in the memo that, “We have spoken to Myrtle Beach and they are enthusiastic about purchasing our very slightly used beach rake at our cost so we should not be out any money. They have money allocated for the purchase.”
During the meeting, Peck explained that he spoke with Matthew Godfrey and stated, “There is no telling how deep the turtle eggs are and in addition, during the last 24 to 36 hours the hatchlings will come up close to the surface waiting for the proper time to actually hatch” and head to the ocean.
Peck explained, “At times hatchlings may be only three inches below the surface, and because that is about the depth the beach rake disturbs sand, there could be a disturbance or a “taking” of a hatchling in that last period in a nest that we didn’t know was there.”
Peck explained, “The other concern was disturbing nesting mother turtles in the morning. If there is a vehicle out there disturbing a mother that is digging her nest. I explained to Mr. Godfrey that we have turtle monitoring vehicles that are driving out there early in the morning and his response was that they are not hauling a rake.”
Peck explained, “I just think we are better off turning to Myrtle Beach who is prepared to purchase a new one. We ordered our rake based on their specifications. It is a brand new piece of equipment and they are willing to pay us what we paid for it.”
Peck explained, “We can put this to good use by selling it to Myrtle Beach so they can get better use out of it while we are trying to fight the State and figure out why it is that Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey can all use these rakes and love them.”
Council member Gary Doetsch explained that those states often have much more aggressive environmental laws.
Peck explained, “We can at least get our money back while we are fighting it and if we finally win, we can buy another rake.”
Council member Pat Efird expressed her frustrations stating, “They can’t tell us that we can’t clean the beach...”
Peck explained, “They consider it a disturbance and any disturbance of the beach falls under the protection of the Division of Coastal Management and any disturbance requires a permit. They have said they would give us a permit only once.”
Mayor Dennis Barbour agreed stating, “We are not going to let this go. It is approved in South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.”
Mayor Barbour agreed the rake should be sold to Myrtle Beach stating, “While we are fighting the battle and the battle may take some time.”
Mayor Barbour pointed out the Town of Oak Island, NC was granted a permit by the state to use a beach rake to remove rocks from the beach.
Council member Doetsch explained, “There is something else I think we need to look at. Once a nest is established, they know what the gestation period on the turtles are, so we know in general when they are going to hatch and if we have the beach rake and know that they are there, we know when we shouldn’t be raking. These folks in Raleigh and Moorehead City are so scientific when it suits their needs, but when it comes time to try to add the human factor into this and allow for people to live here on the beach and enjoy it also, they become awful stupid.”
Doetsch explained that he was not ready to sell the rake to Myrtle Beach stating, “I am with Joel on this, I’m not sure I am ready to let that go yet. I think its time for us to draw a line in the sand with the state and if we have to go to court, let’s go.”
Council member Lynch explained, “My suggestion is to not rock the boat and go ahead with the monitoring and raise as much cane as we can about how other states can do this and we can’t.”
Lynch explained, “I think its a tremendous selling point for Carolina Beach to have a clean beach and to pick up those things we don’t like to put our beach towels down on.” Lynch explained, “I don’t think we would gain much benefit from a rake just sitting around, we can buy another one later.”
Doetsch explained, “If it requires us to enter a lawsuit against them, then I think we ought to do it. Every time we turn around these people are making people on Carolina Beach suffer for what we all hope would be a good nesting area for turtles and its a clear point of fact that it isn’t.”
Doetsch explained, “You have Bald Head Island and Masonboro Island that are good nesting areas for turtles. They should focus on enhancing those areas, and they already are better than Carolina Beach, rather than causing so much trouble to the people of Carolina Beach.”
Peck explained, “I apologize to Council for putting us in this position for not having a permit in hand before we purchased the equipment.”
Council member Lynch explained, “No harm done, we are not loosing any money.”
Council member Doetsch explained, “If it was up to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Wildlife Commission, you wouldn’t be out there on the beach in the summer. Period.”
Doetsch explained the Town should consider bypassing further discussions with the Wildlife Commission and speak to Governor Easley.
Doestch added, “If we do sell the rake, I think we should reinvest that money from a legal aspect to make sure we can do it in the future.”
Mayor Barbour agreed, “We should not have to hire an attorney to do something that is considered legal in other states. We will fight the battle, we are happy to do that. Right now we have an opportunity to secure our investment by selling the rake to Myrtle Beach.”
On the vote to approve the proposal to declare the beach rake “excess” equipment and to authorize the Town Manager to sell the rake to Myrtle Beach, the Council voted four to one with Pat Efird voting no.
The Council agreed they were reluctant to approve of the proposal.
According to Mark Kruea, Public Information Officer for the City of Myrtle Beach, “Yes, the City of Myrtle Beach rakes the high tide line daily using a beach rake, pulled by a tractor. We have one brand new beach rake and one back-up beach rake that we use for emergencies. We do not rake the entire width of the beach; the rake simply isn’t big enough, and we wouldn’t do it anyway. Litter and trash accumulate at the high tide line, and that’s why we rake. We don’t rake into the dune line at all, and the ocean only even touches the dunes during an extremely high tide, a fairly rare occurrence for us.”
Mr. Kruea explained, “Myrtle Beach is one of many South Carolina cities, towns and counties that rakes the high tide line to pick up litter, trash and debris. For example, the City of North Myrtle Beach rakes its high tide line... for the same reasons.”
Mr. Kruea explained, “We do have guidelines for operation of the beach rake, including where on the beach we rake, the speed at which we rake, the hours of operation, etc. Our personnel closely watch for turtle tracks on the beach, especially during the raking operation, and report all sightings to our Beach Patrol, which alerts the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen many signs of turtles lately."
Mr. Kruea explained the City of Myrtle Beach, "...is very conscious of the need to protect turtles and their nests."
Mr. Kruea explained, "I gather that our staff has talked with staff from Carolina Beach, but I know of no agreement to purchase a rake from Carolina Beach. Our Cultural and Leisure Services Department is proposing an additional beach rake as part of its supplemental budget request to City Council for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Along with the rake, we would need a tractor to pull it. I can’t predict whether Council will approve, modify or discard the request, but neither the rake nor the tractor is in the current budget, and July 1 is nearly three months away."
On the vote to approve renewal of the sea turtle monitoring contract at $1,000.00 per month, the Council voted three to two with Council members Pat Efird and Gary Doetsch voting no.
Last year the contract cost the Town $1,200.00 per month which did not include coverage for the Freeman Park area.
