Letter Writer Wants to Redirect Kinetic Sculpture Race Route
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Dear Sequoyah,
Board of Directors Manila CSD,
Manager Chris DropIt is the time of year that the Kinetic Sculpture Race asks to run through our dunes.
Please ask the KSR to redirect their route so as not to damage our ability to function aquatically, in other words, keep the contraptions OFF OF THE dunes.
I know how the Rudd Property lost its wetlands, through abuse and careless vegetation removal, as it was happening each insult was reported to our manager who did absolutely nothing.
Can you tell us who is overseeing our Natural Resources?
When we fail to report our resource losses, either due to grass removal or inappropriate behavior upon the resources that we are responsible for, it creates a liability for the loss of wetland/wildlife functions that we signed to care for when MCSD accepted Porter/Cologne Wetland/Wildlife enhancement monies.
For the sake of future generations, wetlands, and wildlife our lands need connectivity through vegetation or they fragment.
Below is what the nightmarish loss of wetlands looks like;
Lanphere_Dunes
This ugliness first happened on the Rudd Property, above is just NW of the old SP Mill in Manila.
If our Board of Directors or our Manager would have reported the loss of aquatic function, this crap would not be occurring. What you see above would still be alive, providing habitat, wetland functions and stability.
I find these results insulting, near as ugly as MCSD’s silence.
Thank you, sincerely,
Dan Edrich
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it’s as if Dan rejects all historical data. for example “This ugliness” is literally visible in Shuster photos back in the 40s. and wetlands never existed on the high dune area and the only wetlands on the entire spit are man-made from cut/fill projects of the past.
Observant One, these are “constructed wetlands” with the same protections as our naturally occurring wetlands.
In Manila we have HBMWDs industrial water lines under the deflation-plane wetlands, providing the highest security (resilience) possible. It is a federal crime to affect the coast without first showing the engineering from a Qualified Coastal Engineer that changes will NOT increase flood risks.
FEMA will credit a dune as being stable if kept vegetated for 10 consecutive years.
HBMWD watched while the cruelly named Friends of the Dunes stripped the Primary Dune
destroying the constructed wetlands and lowering Base Flood Elevations by 30′!
So… Observant One, our goals are three-fold: enhance wildlife habitat, enhance wetlands and their functions, and enhance stability.
That is why I signed for the Porter/Cologne monies, not for some phyto-fascists to declare a plant illegal and begin a war that harms our wildlife or their habitats.
Just curious – There’s a plethora of State and Federal agencies charged with protecting wildlife habitat, wetlands and their functions, flood prevention, bio diversity and more.
How is it that you’ve not attracted any of these agencies to your cause?
Seriously – because they’re pretty effective at stopping almost anything that might potentially cause environmental harm. But they’ve stood aside while wetlands and wildlife habitat were/are being destroyed?
Name a forested dune ANYWHERE ON EARTH that allows mechanized transport over forested dunes.
Civilized societies instead build boardwalks so as not to interrupt the connectivity that is required to maintain wetland functions.
I know I’m going to regret this, but the Oregon Coast Dunes Recreational Area does.
As an aside, the Oregon Coast dunes are an amazing place and huge. When you drive north from Coos Bay you don’t really realize that the forested hills to the west are dunes. Several years ago, on our way down to Humboldt, we wandered off the highway at Winchester Bay to check out the Umpqua River mouth. To the south was a road and it was one of those “where does that go?” kind of thing.
Well, I’ll tell you. Those sandy forested hills (forests) that we see on 101 are, on the west side, the most gobsmacking dunes I’ve ever seen in my life. Pictures really don’t do them justice at all. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know they were there, driving past them for decades.
Up to 500 feet tall, the largest dune field (by area) in North America and one of the largest in the temperate world.
I’ll try again – Why are none of the State and Fed regulatory agencies acting to prevent the alleged loss of wildlife habitat and wetlands?
10/26/1948
Just add grass, create a Primary Dune, a deflation-plane wetland and green (stabilize) the entire dune to be a habitat for our severely stressed coastal mammals and migratory birds.
OR
Watch as it washes away.
Understand this is NOT to be a geological restoration, Porter/Cologne
is a biological enhancement effort.
porter cologne act is to protect water from intentional chemical impacts.
Among other water centered goals.
In Manila our P/C money was intended to guard surface water,
to create wetlands and wildlife habitat.
It worked wonderfully, creating a Primary Dune that created a deflation plane wetland for wildlife habitat all while securing the infrastructure that HBMWD has neglected for years now. We pay HBMWDs manager $500 a day. The question is how much we need to pay him to care for our coastal infrastructure.
HBMWDs Manager watched as the Primary Dune west of HBMWDs infrastructure collapsed due to vegetation removal, then became partners with the morons that destroyed the structure between his pipes and the Pacific Ocean. The stupidity runs deep, sooner or later the Third District Supervisor will be held accountable. We pray.
Dan I think you have more to worry about than damage caused to the dunes by the kinetic sculptures. Two excavators and two bulldozers are flattening The Lanphere Dunes on Friday 3/15/24. Whoever is doing this ( US FISH AND WILDLIFE?) just completed 2 miles of the south jetty dunes and a section to the north end of Clam Beach.
The results at every site are diminished wildlife habitat and loss of wetlands.
I don’t know who pushes this cruelty or why they perpetuate it. Maybe Local Observer
or Truth Be Told can tell us what they find positive about grass removal, I’ve looked,
and cannot see anything but poorly spent enviro dollars leading to cruelty and loss at every level of biology.
By all means link to the studies that show a decrease in species richness or diversity in restored dune habitat.
Why should anyone choose man-made wetland over a unique habitat that exist nowhere else on Earth?
There is a study out of Oregon that found reduced snowy plover nesting after European Beach grass removal. If you search Google scholar it’s pretty easy to find
Give it a break! Bullshit, we’ve sacrificed miles of wetlands, rare habitat, for what?
I don’t know why you’re yelling at me
Apologies. I misinterpreted your missive.
Thanks that is helpful.
“By all means link to the studies that show a decrease in species richness or diversity in restored dune habitat”
By all means, visit the sites, report back, and tell us where to see this illusion.
Our dunes are sand- just sand. When vegetated they hold water, when denuded they drain, fragment, collapse, and blow away.
Who or what benefits?
Dan, I didn’t state a position on grass removal, I merely asked why the State & Fed agencies are allowing the loss of wildlife habitat and wetlands, if that’s what’s happening.
I am sorry.
You make a good point.
how old is that original photo ?
Seems like about 100 years old. If I had a doller for every time that photo is trotted out, I’d buy my own dune and have an aquatic animal barbecue.
the dead trees in the picture are in the center of the sand area in the 1948 Shuster photo I posted above. it’s as if historical data doesn’t exist to Dan.
Those trees were a symbol of success in creating wetlands. What is the matter with you? When those trees were alive they provided habitat, sequestered carbon, and created stability.
These are our goals to enhance wildlife and wetland functions- and you see their destruction as an enviro good?
Please stay away from our coastline, you’ve got a pervertedly destructive sense of environmentalism and our beautiful coastline deserves so much better..
those trees are literally the black dot in the center of the October 1948 Shuster image of the Lanphere dunes I cropped and posted for you. this is like the 5th or 6th time i have posted it for you. as a scientist i feel it is my civic duty to keep trying to help.
You portray yourself as a ‘scientist?’
That black dot is close but the deflation plane is west of that.
What is it that you are pushing for?
If it is those giant sand sheets we see wherever vegetation has been
removed, all I can ask is, why?
Thirty years of this crap, where do we see a successful restoration?
Name a lifeform that benefits.
I mean, besides the greedy, lying bastards cashing the checks.
That damage is clearly dioxin contamination form the millpond.
Back in the past, that grass was purposely planted to encourage dunes to form to save the beaches from eroding away due to the relentless offshore winds and high tides. It worked, I never could believe they decided to pull all that “non native grass”. Such lack of foresight seems to be the norm these days with various agencies and their pet peeves and projects.
Sigh, that is merely the science, we are dealing with ideology here.
Excellent larp.