PACIFIC CITY, Ore. (AP) — Doug Olson has never seen the snowy plover — a bird so small it can fit into a child’s cupped hands — but he says a state proposal for protecting it could threaten his livelihood.
“This is the spotted owl on the beach,” said Mr. Olson, an innkeeper, referring to another endangered species that years ago brought logging to a halt on vast reaches of federal forests in Oregon.
The state has proposed closing 57 miles, or about 25 percent, of Oregon’s northern coast to dogs, kites, vehicles and campfires during the six-month mating season of the threatened snowy plover.
The tiny white bird lays its fragile eggs in dry sand, where they are easily destroyed. Pedestrians and horseback riding would still be allowed as long as it was on wet sand.
Residents are infuriated by the idea of surrendering their beach for a bird that many of them have never seen — even though environmentalists statewide say the protection is necessary.
“Are we going to put up steel fences because the dinosaur might come back, too?” asked Paul See of Seaside, whose family has owned land in the coastal community since 1870.
But northern Oregon is only the latest battleground between business owners and the bird. From coast to coast, wherever there is sand, people and the plover are coming into conflict.
In California, where 1,470 adult birds were counted last year, 17 beaches spanning more than 100 miles from San Diego to San Francisco have changed the way they do business — from banning off-road vehicles to restrictions on kites, dogs and bonfires. On the Atlantic Coast, the piping plover — the snowy plover’s distant cousin — has unleashed similar restrictions in 11 states from the edges of Canada to South Carolina.
In southern Oregon, 17 miles of beaches already have imposed various degrees of restrictions since 1993, the year the bird became listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Some 90 adult birds were counted in Oregon last year.
In the newest proposal, state park officials want to extend the restrictions to all beaches where the plover could nest. Still in the initial stages, the proposed bans are at least two years away.
Resistance is particularly strong in Seaside, a town of 6,000 that has 21 restaurants and 1,000 hotel rooms in a six-block radius fronting the beach. An aggressive petition drive started by Mr. See has grown to more than 2,500 signatures. At Bud’s RV and Campground, a jar of hard-boiled eggs is jokingly labeled, “Plover Eggs, 75 cents.”
In Oregon, state officials argue the recovery plan could even turn a profit for the coast.
“In 2001, 46 million birdwatchers generated $32 billion in retail sales,” said Phil Carroll, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who argues that all-terrain-vehicle riders will be replaced by avid birders.
Others aren’t convinced. Down the coast in Coos County, beaches have faced restrictions since the snowy plover was listed in 1993.
“It’s a total lie,” said avid surfer and County Commissioner John Griffith, when asked if birdwatching had replaced the business lost. “It’s hurt our economy, and they know it.”
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