For more than a decade, Newport Beach officials have tried to come up with a way to protect the threatened Western snowy plover, a small white-and-brown shorebird, but recently its efforts have taken on greater urgency as the California Coastal Commission insists a plan be immediately put in place.
The sensitive plover population up and down the coast has been declining with the encroachment of development and invasion of non-native plant species limiting its ability to nest.
Balboa Peninsula, specifically the coastal dune habitat between B and G streets, is one of the largest and most important of seven protected plover habitats in Orange County. In all, there are 55 protected plover grounds along the West Coast.
The area on the peninsula was designated as critical habitat for the plover by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2012 and, in turn, dedicated as an avian conservation area.
Typically, plovers winter on the peninsula from July through March. At last count, there were about 50 to 60 of the little shorebirds in that area. But that population study by a Cal State Fullerton graduate student was in 2019; there’s been no more monitoring since the pandemic. In 2014, there were as many as 125 plovers, but the last successful nest observed on the peninsula was in 2009.
Starting in 2011, the city’s protection for the birds consisted of a Nantucket-style slated wooden fencing that encircled two sand dunes areas on Balboa Beach between the two streets. Residents who live along the stretch south of the Balboa Pier objected to the fencing, which was becoming weathered, calling it an “eyesore.”
Some of the fencing that was falling down has been removed in recent years.
“We’re working on a conservation plan for the entire area to address protection of the snowy plover and the dune habitat,” Seimone Jurjis, Newport Beach’s director of community development, said of efforts since 2017 to address both residential and environmental concerns.
That has included interacting with the Coastal Commission and getting required permits.
But earlier this year, Newport Beach withdrew its permit application to have more time to develop its overall protection program with input from residents who live near the beach and from environmental groups, such as the Sea & Sage Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and the Endangered Habitats League.
But the Coastal Commission is now “understandably concerned,” Andrew Willis, its Southern California enforcement supervisor, said, because there is presently no fencing and the city has withdrawn its application.
“We’ve asked that some fencing be immediately installed,” Willis said.
Dru Fanticola, a resident who lives across from the plover habitat, said he first spoke to the Coastal Commission about the fencing in 2017. The original fencing seemed to go up without a plan, he said.
“It sat out there and deteriorated. I picked up trash and debris from the beach that got caught in it,” he said. “Some of the parts had fallen over. It was an eyesore.”
“I don’t think the fences were erected for the sake of the plovers,” he added. “I think was put up to stop city vehicles from driving through the dunes.”
Instead of just putting back up a fence, the city has been working on the new management plan that could be a model for other environmentally sensitive areas along the peninsula, once approved by the Coastal Commission, Jurjis said.
The plan – as it stands presently – would focus on education, preventing unleashed dogs in the area, and protecting, maintaining and enhancing the habitat between B and G streets. It would also include a monitoring program for the birds and placing visual indicators east of the critical habitat along the beach toward the Wedge to prompt people to avoid transversing the sand in that area of dunes. The E Street concrete walkway to the beach would be removed as part of a larger restoration effort.
“Our biggest challenge is some residents don’t like it and we’re trying to get their input,” Jurjis said.
Fanticola, who has lived in the area for seven years and has attended about 15 of the community meetings, said he likes the informational elements proposed, such as stenciling on the boardwalk to let beachgoers know they are in plover territory. But, he said he doesn’t like the idea of removing the designated walkway through the sand or the inclusion of low-level fencing.
“My idea would be to start with stenciling, find out how many people walk through the dunes, and have some phases before we go to Z with concertina wire,” he said. “Why not scale back and do it cautiously.”
Robb Hamilton, a bird biologist from Long Beach, has also weighed in at the community meetings. He sees the issue as bigger than just the presently designated plover habitat and said the city’s new plan could be an opportunity to do more.
“The city has a local coastal plan that describes the coastal dunes as an environmentally sensitive area,” he said. “They’ve never treated the dunes like (they are a) special habitat. Since it’s a beach, they treat it like a playground.
“They should be treating all the dunes as environmentally sensitive habitat.”
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