Say Feds Resist Citing Lauren In Plover Incident

Six pairs shrank to three after press event

By Russell Drumm

(07/04/2007)    Frustrated at what he perceived to be foot-dragging on the part of agents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Francis Bock, clerk of the East Hampton Town Trustees, stormed out of a June 22 meeting of town and federal officials.

    The gathering had been called to address the repercussions of a June 6 press event at which a new Ralph Lauren cologne ran afoul of nesting piping plovers. Drivers were said to be zooming around the beach in Land Rovers and causing the endangered shorebirds distress. The press event was staged by Ralph Lauren Fragrances, a licensee of Ralph Lauren USA.

    “The agent from Fish and Wildlife was asking questions, but they were leading, so it was more like, why we can’t prosecute. Their job was to take information back to their attorney, but the form was negative, like they were looking for a way out,” Mr. Bock said on Tuesday.

    Mr. Bock, who is the trustees’ presiding officer, said he grew annoyed because the Fish and Wildlife Service requires the town to put so much time and money into protecting the birds (on whose behalf the planned July Fourth fireworks at East Hampton’s Main Beach have been postponed for a second time).

    Yet, Mr. Bock said, the service now seems reluctant to back the town up.

    “I told them, ‘You don’t want to deal with this. You’re tying our hands by letting people off, it’s a waste of my time. I’m leaving.’ So I left the meeting,” Mr. Bock said.

    “We still don’t have an answer,” he said, as to whether the federal agency intends to prosecute. Piping plover populations are considered to be threatened, and interfering with them can mean a fine of up to $200,000.

    Latisha Coy, a staff member of the Natural Resources Department who oversees protection of the shorebirds, said yesterday that the day before the event there had been six pairs of plovers in the area. The day after, she said, there were three.

    In addition to Mr. Bock and Ms. Coy, the June 22 meeting was attended by Larry Penny, the town’s director of natural resources, Frank Kennedy of the town marine patrol, Bill Taylor, the town’s waterways management supervisor, Jim Dunlop, the town’s fire marshal, and Steve Pappa, a special agent with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

    On June 2, fashion editors were helicoptered to East Hampton and taken to the site of the shoot at the end of Napeague Lane in Amagansett, where a platform and tent had been set up on the beach. The gathering was part of a campaign to launch a new fragrance.

    The fire marshal had issued a permit for the tent, but the event’s organizers did not have permission for it from the town trustees, who own and manage many beaches in town on behalf of the public. Nor did the Polo group have a permit to film on the beach, which is also required. 

    When Ms. Coy arrived at Napeague Lane that morning to check on nests, she said, she discovered the platform only 50 feet east of one pair of nesting birds and 100 feet west of another. Eight Land Rovers were “speeding” up and down and around in circles, she said.

    In addition, she said, she saw a distressed bird hovering over the Ralph Lauren tent. Ms. Coy said the platform and tent were in a “scratch area” where plovers find nesting material, and that the general activity harassed the nesting birds, which, under federal law, constitutes a “taking” punishable by fine. She reported the activity to the town clerk and to the marine patrol, which issued a summons to the group for not having a filming permit.

    Ryan Lowery, a spokesman for Ralph Lauren U.S.A., said the Land Rovers were driven by professional drivers hired by the company’s licensee, and that “at no time did they come with 30 feet of the plover fencing.” Mr. Bock said the trustees intended to ask Town Supervisor Bill McGintee to instruct the town attorney’s office to seek subpoenas in order to formally question witnesses.

    “There are things in the zoning ordinances,” Mr. Bock said, such as putting up structures on the beach without permission.

    Mr. McGintee said yesterday that while he was in favor of pursuing the matter, the problem, as he, a former policeman, saw it, could be a lack of evidence that would hold up.

    Steve Pappa, a special agent of the fish and wildlife service who attended the June 22 meeting, could not be reached for comment at press time.

    Unconfirmed is the veracity of an anonymous phone call received at the Natural Resources Department after the incident from a man who claimed to be a disgruntled employee of a Land Rover dealership. The man said he had attended a meeting at which a polo match featuring Land Rovers with professional drivers and mallet-swinging riders in the passenger seats had been planned as part of a national advertising campaign.