Huguenot Park - Your access today!

[kitester]

To all those who attended the meeting this past monday ....Thank you very much.

It was important for the city council, the state representatives and members of the ARC to see that the people of Jacksonville are in support of the current plan. Thanks to all who spoke and to all who spread the word about the meeting. Its your park and your town. You should be the ones making the decisions on how to protect and manage it.

one more time


Thanks!

[JettyDog]

Florida Open Beaches and the Friends of Huguenot may have an unexpected ally. I ran across this today. While it is unrelated directly, it may have an impact on Huguenot.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1998905,00.html

     This could conceiveably open up Audubon, Sierra Club, and/or Linda Bremer to civil action and litigation. If beach access can be construed as motorized traffic access, and it can , then anyone wanting to pursue that litigation could find themselves with a winning case.

No permanent closures of any section of Huguenot. Temporary closures for the hatchlings only and only short term.

The Park's Management Plan is the best case scenario for all concerned parties.

[kitester]

To all who read these and visit the park....The whole point is closed at this time including the entire cove side. this will be the case until the birds can fly. Please remember that there is absolutely no driving beyond the protection fences. The area is still accessible to pedestrians and bicycles. Today the high tide is around 9:30. This week high tide will be in the middle of the day.   

[JettyDog]

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/401026/ron-littlepage/2010-07-01/reasonable-compromise-cars-huguenot-park

[JettyDog]

Well, the city waterways commission meeting went well, I think, with only myself and Tom Ingram speaking on behalf of beach access and motorized access. There were no oppossition speakers from Audubon or Sierra. Nathan Rezeau gave a history of how we got to where we are now covering ARC, their meetings, last minute eff...orts to close the Park, the structure of ARC and what the city is being forced to do , the proposed closing of the Family Beach area due to pressure from ARC , Audubon, and the Fl. Dept. of Environmental Protection. We did have a DEP person there to speak on the State's behalf. I'm sure Mr. Ingram will post his remarks and thoughts here. I'm posting the content of my remarks to the Commission and response . Here it is:

[JettyDog]

Good Morning. I come to you this morning to speak out against any permanent closure of any section of Huguenot Memorial Park to motorized traffic.The city stands to lose untold tourist dollars which are now pouring in as a result of motorized traffic . People throughout the SouthEast are coming to Huguenot on vacation as well as local in-state visitors who come for the day or weekend. I have seen license plates from the following states in the Park this past weekend as well as in the recent past. There are plates from North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas and Utah, to name a few. I have spoken to folks from Live Oak, Lake City, Crescent Beach, Daytona and Lake Butler as well as other Florida cities who frequent the Park also. There are over 400,000 people who visit our Park annually. The city benefits from those folks spending their money at local area businesses and the taxes they pay on goods and services while here. The stock market has suffered a recent setback bringing the specter of a double dip recession. We are not out of the woods yet. We need to keep those tourist dollars coming into the city to aid us in overcoming Jacksonville's deficit and help in the recovery from the recession. The Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf may even bring additional tourists to the First Coast. There are no valid reasons to shut any portion of Huguenot. The recent public meeting held at the Oceanway Community Club showed overwhelming public support for motorized traffic. As to any endangered species in the Park, I would have to see time stamp and dated photos with recognizable landmarks showing them as well as autopsies of bird deaths. Motorized traffic has little impact on the burgeoning bird population that continues to grow despite having vehicles in the Park. Special interest groups have failed to provide any legitimate overwhelming documentation to show an overall negative impact to the ever increasing bird population. Therefore, my vote is for temporary closures to protect the baby birds, but no permanent closures at Huguenot.We can ill afford to lose this incidental income, tax dollars and tourist money by excluding people from coming here by denying them motorized access to the Park. The end result could be economically devastating to Hecksher Dr. businesses specifically and the city overall. Thank you.

[JettyDog]

Mr. Crescembeni asked me if I was in favor of the city losing it's lease and the State taking it over and closing Huguenot to all vehicular traffic probably due to my opposition to any closures, to which I repsonded No, I was in favor of the city keeping it's lease and if we had to close a section, then we had to do that. But I was in favor of beach driving. So, there you have it. The fight will be in December in Tallhassee and we need as many public there to support access as possible.

[JettyDog]

I was at Huguenot yesterday. I saw a van from Conneticut and a young man in a wheel chair. I watched as he wheeled down to the water and his friend picked him up out of the wheel chair and carried him into the ocean. This is a great reason to keep motorized access to Huguenot. He did not have to negotiate over ramps , up dunes nor a great expanse of sand to get to the water. They just parked nearby and had easy access to the ocean.

[JettyDog]

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=128117997563&view=all

[JettyDog]

http://jacksonville.com/community/nassau/2010-07-14/story/audubon-gets-vehicle-access-restricted-areas-beach-huguenot-park

     So, let me get this right. Audubon found out "walking to the tip of the oceanfront park north of the Beaches can be exhausting in the summer heat".And , according to Leslie Royce's e-mail "On days when the temps are in the 90s, it is tough walking this area."
     And she goes on to say, "We are doing something to help the city," said Royce. "They [beach access advocates] are asking to go out and recreate. That's not what we are doing. We are doing a job for the city."
Well, it seems that walking from Hecksher Dr. or even from the Bay side to the Atlantic side, lugging anything like umbrellas, coolers, fishing gear, or kite surfing equipment might be just a little more exhausting than just walking.     
     And, if Audubon is really sincere about helping the city, then they need to go ahead and sign off on the management plan. That would REALLY help the City instead of just paying lip service.
     And lastly, "[beach access advocates] are asking to go out and recreate". I believe Huguenot is deeded to the State as a recreation area first and foremost, not a CWA or bird sanctuary. Quite naturally we want to go out and recreate. That's what it's there for.
      It would appear that Audubon wants exclusive access to the closed areas . Sounds pretty hypocritical to me.
     Here's a thought. What is the overlook observation gazebo for in  Zone 16 that is accessible from the unused parking lot to your left as you enter the gate at the Park?

[JettyDog]

Oh, did I mention how exhausting and tough of a walk it would be for toddlers and handicapped persons if they had to walk from Hecksher Dr. to the ocean? Hmmmmmmm........

[kitester]

I just visited Hatteras NC. If you think the Audubon is actively trying to close our beach look what they are doing to the poor people on the outer banks.

http://www.preservebeachaccess.org/landingnew/news.html

The audubon, Seirra Club and defenders of Wildlife are anything but. They have forced a far less effective management plan into place with threats of law suits. This plan has resulted in fewer fledged birds. They also force the NPS to destroy(read shoot and trap) natural predators living on the islands. Raccoons are probably very plentiful but foxes and minks? Nutria are listed as a predator but are are vegetarians and dont come near the areas where plovers nest. What the hell are they thinking? The official records list hundreds of destroyed animals. All of these are mammals. I wonder if they would shoot hawks that eat plovers?  Are the Audubon and associated groups just run by idiots? The people of Hatteras hate the audubon groups. The effect is that a whole generation is learning to distrust and loath the audubon and related organizations. The general consensus of the people I spoke to is that it is better to kick over a plover nest than to let it be discovered by NPS or audubon. If found it causes a closure of 700 meters or almost half a mile! And they want those closures to be permanent year round closures! Even one of the park service employees I spoke to said that it did not make any sense. His take on it was that people with a lot of book education are inflicting harmful restrictions and policies on an area they have little if any practical knowledge of. Sound familiar? To top it all off the environmentalist groups are fighting the construction of the new Oregon Inlet Bridge. They consistently push for more environmental impact studies even though the necessary studies were done years ago. The old bridge is 10 years past its expiration date and could be closed or worse collapse. If people die the Audubon Society and related groups should be held responsible. Of course they wont. They will just disappear into the shadows looking for the next place to shut down. It is amazing that these groups can achieve such power through threats of litigation. You see what has happened here? As a person who grew up being trained by my parents to respect the natural environment and as a volunteer who has spent hundreds of hours helping these organizations I will never look at the natural world again with amazement and wonder without thinking about how many people were displaced or livelihoods destroyed without reason. I even found myself reconsidering the plight of Japanese fishermen and their whaling industry. And that is truly a sad comment on the audubon etc. These people need to get a grip and realize that they are going to be responsible for a backlash that could be harmful to the environment. They may think they are saviors of the natural world but it looks like they are doing more harm than good.           

[JettyDog]

Spent yesterday kayaking out there and hand feeding the laughing gulls with a family of three. I did catch the PBS video on red knots last week. It was very intersting, but I have a question or two. Why isn't Huguenot or Jacksonville mentioned in the video? And the cannon netting....isn't that extremely traumatizing to the red knots? It seems the problem lies in Delaware Bay, not here. Here's the link for the video:

http://pbs.org./wnet/nature/episodes/crash-a-tale-of-two-species/introduction/592/

[Springfielder]

The cannon netting is handled by trained personnel and when done properly, the birds aren't traumatized as much as you think. Although it would be nice if such measures weren't needed, but they are in order to be able to track. etc., the birds.

It's true that the main area is along the coast further north, but they do stop here as well. I've seen hundreds of them along the beach, feeding.

[kitester]

Huguennot Park had 200 at any one time this year during the spring migration. I was told that an estimated 2000 were seen at Cumberland Island. Many of them do not migrate further south than than the tip of Fl. Those are the ones we see here most of the time. We do get a few of the South American birds here but most of those fly further up the coast before making land fall. Mind you this is what the experts say about them. the Fall (southward) migration will start in a few weeks. Last year we did not reach the protection trigger of 50 birds so the protection measures were not activated for the fall migration. On another note the the fledgling bird protections were extremely effective this summer. There are only a few flightless babies left on park property. The protection restrictions will be lifted and the beach completely reopened in a few weeks if not sooner. I will post when it happens.