By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – The city of Waldport and Oregon State Parks will see if they can work out an issue involving a rare shore bird that threatens to cancel the city’s annual July 3 fireworks show over Alsea Bay.
Now, instead of outright denying a necessary permit, Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department officials say they will work with the city to possibly move and slightly change the long-running and popular fireworks display.
The issue arose last week when a state parks employee in Seal Rock informed the city that the agency would not issue a permit for the show that launches 25 minutes of fireworks from a sandy beach on the north side of Alsea Bay.
Directly to the west on the ocean side of the bay – called the Bayshore area — is a prime area for snowy plover nests. The snowy plover is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and state and federal agencies have gone to great lengths to protect the bird and its nesting areas along the Oregon coast.
The state’s notice sent Waldport city manager Dann Cutter scrambling for clarification this week – and seeking other possible venues for the city-financed fireworks.
“Right now we’re at the start of ‘Oh boy, this just happened. What do we do’?’ Cutter told YachatsNews.
The notice of no permit came from the state parks’ central coast office in Seal Rock. Cutter immediately sought clarification from the agency’s coastwide manager Dennis Comfort in Salem – and got some Wednesday.
Comfort told Cutter and YachatsNews that he believes his agency and the city can find some sort of solution that protects the plover’s nests while continuing the fireworks show.
“The city manager and I are agreeing to work together to see if we can find a solution,” Comfort said. “What is the least risk to the plover while we honor the fireworks tradition?”
Bayshore nesting
The western snowy plover is a small shorebird listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1993 under the federal Endangered Species Act, triggering a variety of protection and recovery efforts. The birds nest in areas of dry sand and beach grass just above the normal high tide line, typically laying 2-3 eggs in shallow scrapes or depressions.
From March 15 to Sept. 15 two federal agencies and the state parks department oversee – and try to restrict access to – 15 designated nesting areas along the Oregon coast. While the Bayshore beach is not one of those formally managed nesting sites, the past few years it has had the best nesting success of any plover areas in Lincoln County.
During the 2022 snowy plover breeding season there were 29 nesting attempts by snowy plovers in Lincoln County and 26 of those were at Bayshore, according to volunteers who monitor nests in the county.
Of the 26 nests at Bayshore, five nests hatched and a total of seven chicks were fledged from those nests — about 5 percent of all of the young produced this year on the Oregon coast.
But the plover is notoriously fickle – a long nesting period in delicate and often busy sandy areas just outside the high tide line along the shoreline. It scrapes away shallow areas of the sand to lay eggs that are prone to predation by gulls, ravens or crows and easily disturbed by people or dogs.
Just days before last July’s fireworks show, state parks employees found active nests near the launch area. It managed to keep people away from the nests using volunteers and state and federal staff. It later turned out that the most successful nests in that area were the ones closest to the fireworks.
Comfort said the state or city could be subject to a federal fine of up to $50,000 if it knowingly allows the “take” of a plover or its nest.
“That’s the thing we’re trying to avoid … a ‘take’ occurring,” he said. “The Endangered Species Act is a big deal … but I need to try to find a balance. It’s not some bureaucrat saying ‘no’ because we can.”
Conflicts with the federal Marine Mammal Act led to the cancellation of the fireworks show in Depoe Bay 10 years ago. In Yachats last year, there was barely a council majority voting to spend $25,000 for a show after two councilors expressed concerns over its cost and the effect on the environment.
Hard to find launch site
The original State Parks notice of no permit came just as Waldport’s fireworks provider, Western Display of Canby, was asking the city to commit to a July 3 show and write a check for a down payment. Last year the city spent $17,500 for the show.
Cutter initially thought about trying to move the fireworks into a large, vacant lot in the middle of downtown, but that was nixed by Western Display because it needed a much larger buffer between the launch site and any structures.
How about moving it to the Port of Alsea marina? Maybe, but lots of access issues. How about a floating barge in the middle of the river? Is there one around, is it large enough and is it available?
Low tide next July 3 is 7 p.m.
Comfort said he’s now suggesting that the city apply for the fireworks permit and then watch where snowy plovers build nests in June and set up some sort of system to safeguard them – rather than rush around at the last minute like this year.
Cutter said that may mean trying to find a suitable launch site farther east or exploring with Western Display to see if there are fireworks that are quieter – something that other cities have been asking about as well. The city also owns a bit of land along the bay that may have less restrictions on it if used as a launch site.
“It is a lot more complex than I thought to find another location,” Cutter said.
Cutter and Comfort both agree that if the show is cancelled it could lead to more people using the Bayshore and Alsea Bay beaches for their own fireworks show – even closer to plover nests. Lincoln County law enforcement officials say the cancellation of Fourth of July shows during the 2020-21 pandemic led to just that – more problems with personal fireworks in more areas.
For now, Cutter said, the city will proceed with the fireworks contract “with the good faith intention that the show will proceed.”
But, Comfort said, there is a lot stake “if we get this wrong. My commitment is to work through this process to see if we can find a solution, even if it’s tricky.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com