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Thursday, March 28, 2024

County requests relief from bird monitoring

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More than one year after New Hanover County officials requested relief from bird monitoring requirements at the north end of Wrightsville Beach, the request has been formally passed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for review.

A formal permit modification request was put on hold while the county worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Fish and Wildlife Service to bring the Mason Inlet Waterbird Management Area into compliance with terms set out in the 2002 Masons Inlet relocation permit.

The area was created under the permit to protect colonial waterbirds and shorebirds potentially upset by the relocation project. Layton Bedsole, county shore protection manager, said bird monitoring performed by Audubon North Carolina through 2013 suggests the project had no adverse impact on the birds.

“Our intent was initiated from the previous 12 years of monitoring that has shown no significant negative effects,” Bedsole said during an Oct. 7 phone interview.

But Kathy Matthews, Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, doubts all monitoring requirements will be dropped.

One of Matthews’ main concerns is how dynamism in that environment could impact shorebirds and colonial waterbirds, especially species of national concern like piping plovers. She said fewer birds are tempted to use the area in recent years as more vegetation crops up — including piping plovers, which prefer open, sandy habitat.

Matthews said the agency needs to know not only where the birds are going, but whether future changes to the land bring them back.

“Over time, that area is changing. There are some areas of overwash on that vegetated spit and if we have another winter with a lot of overwash, there might be more nesting there next year. But we won’t know if we don’t monitor,” Matthews said during an Oct. 3 phone interview.

Since the Masons Inlet relocation project is the first of its kind in North Carolina, Matthews said it is important to keep an eye on the area to know how inlet stabilization impacts change during the life of the project.

“We are trying to determine the level of appropriate monitoring, because this is an ongoing project and we want to document effects good and bad on the project, particularly on the piping plover, but also on other species,” Matthews said.

Matthews said Fish and Wildlife’s review of the permit could yield different or reduced bird monitoring requirements.

“We’re in the midst of talking about what kinds of information we’re looking for. It may be we’re looking for something that would not require a bird expert, but certainly it would require a certain amount of knowledge about bird species and their behaviors,” Matthews said.

When Audubon North Carolina monitored the area, it produced reports of all shorebirds and colonial waterbirds using the area. After the expiration of Audubon’s contract in September 2013, the county chose not to renew it. The county was not required to log nests and eggs laid during the 2014 nesting season as permit negotiation discussions continued.

The Mason Inlet Preservation Group, comprised of property owners on the north end of Wrightsville Beach and Figure Eight Island who shoulder the cost of Masons Inlet maintenance through periodic property assessments, have suggested a shift to more volunteer labor for waterbird management area monitoring.

Bedsole said the county will seriously consider possible contractors once new responsibilities emerge from permit negotiations.

Fish and Wildlife Service officials have 135 days to create a new biological opinion, which assesses impact to species using the area in conjunction with other issues affecting the species as a whole. Necessary terms and conditions for the area, including bird monitoring requirements, will be determined by the biological opinion.

Tyler Crumbley, U.S. Army Corps regulatory project manager, said the county has also requested a different timeframe for maintenance dredging of Masons Inlet, stretching a three-year cycle to five years.

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