A Shift On Plover Watch
Trustees, Natural Resources off-duty
(5/15/2008) Confusion swept the monthly meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees on Tuesday night when the board learned that joint responsibility for protecting piping plovers had been taken away from them and the East Hampton Town Natural Resources Department and turned over to one member of the town board.
Diane McNally, the trustees’ presiding officer, informed them that communication between the town and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service was now being handled by Brad Loewen, the town board member. Helping him, and answering only to him, will be a member of the Natural Resources Department, Lisa D’Andrea.
The change in the monitoring of piping plovers, a federally protected species, was announced by the town board in March well before May 6, when Mr. Loewen announced the board’s intention to make the Natural Resources Department a division of the Planning Department and to eliminate the position of natural resources director, which is held by Larry Penny.
In a March 18 memo to Mr. Penny, Mr. Loewen wrote that plover management would be under the “sole direction” of Ms. D’Andrea, who would not be answerable to Mr. Penny but rather to Mr. Loewen himself. Ms. D’Andrea was to have two part-time helpers, the memo stated.
Mr. Loewen informed Mr. Penny that the change was an effort to avoid “the prior level of chaos and disruption within the plover program.” The memo to Mr. Penny was not copied to the trustees.
Yesterday Ms. McNally said she was not aware of any chaos and confusion last year. “My concern is that the existing relationship is not in place,” she said.
She said she had already contacted an agent of the Fish and Wildlife Service who had e-mailed Mr. Penny wondering why he had not seen protective fencing in the early part of April. In the past the federal agency has threatened to close down town beaches if the town fails to live up to a complex series of directives intended to protect the birds.
Ms. McNally said she had informed the agent of the altered chain of command. “I asked him who would get the violation if the town can’t keep up — us, the town, or the person [who endangers a bird]? He said, I don’t know, it could be anyone.”
“Wait a minute, those are our beaches,” said Norman Edwards, a trustee, meaning that most town beaches are held by the trustees on behalf of the public.
For the past 13 years, the trustees have watched over the shorebirds in cooperation with Mr. Penny and three of his staff members, including Ms. D’Andrea.
Ms. McNally reminded the trustees that East Hampton had been singled out by the Fish and Wildlife Service for its success at protecting the birds through their breeding season. Because of that, she said, the federal agency had been willing to designate specific plover habitats, outside of which the town would not be held responsible if a plover were accidentally killed or harassed.
Hefting a large notebook, Ms. McNally said the protocols to create the habitats were beyond the capability of one person to carry out. The program’s success so far, she said, had bred an even greater challenge, as there were more birds.
The collaboration between the trustees and Natural Resources Department had meant “more monitoring,” which had led the Fish and Wildlife Service to reduce the portions of beach closed off during the breeding season. “We got down to the minimum,” she said, “but because the bird population has expanded, we have expanded areas.”
“We need the support of the Natural Resources Department and the town board and the state,” Ms. McNally said. The State Parks and Recreation Department has taken over protection of plovers along its section of beach on Napeague.
On Tuesday night, the trustees agreed that a letter supporting Mr. Penny and his work should be sent to the town board. Listing his contributions to plover protection, dredging projects, open-marsh management programs, fish farming, and eelgrass restoration, Ms. McNally said yesterday, “I’m worried about losing Larry as an ally. He has made the state, the Army Corps, and others aware that the trustees exist, and that jurisdictionally they have to deal differently with us. He’s been excellent.”
Mr. Edwards said the job of protecting East Hampton’s natural resources did not belong to the Planning Department. While that department plans for the future, he said, Natural Resources deals with the present.
Mr. Penny and the current town board have been at odds over his administrative style and what board members have seen as his penchant for testing the limits of his office. He has been critical of the Planning Department’s policies regarding erosion control, among other things, and he has represented the trustees in dealing with state agencies they do not formally recognize.
Mr. Penny said on Monday that he felt the recent flap over his unilateral decision to inform East Hampton High School officials about elevated levels of arsenic in soil from the farm fields across from the school precipitated the board’s decision to abolish his position.
Much of the fields is owned by East Hampton Town. Mr. Penny had suggested that Raymond Gualtieri, the school’s superintendent, have air vents tested for contamination. After getting no answer for three months, the natural resources director made his concerns public, he said.
“My feeling is I’m obliged to advise anyone about toxins in the environment,” Mr. Penny said on Monday.