All quiet on the beach front?

I anxiously pulled up the Daily News website today to see if there's any word on the easements and the beach nourishment project.

Nada - at least on line.

I really don't think that any government official is going to change the language in the easement documents relating to marine and wildlife habitats & etc. And especially not for just one or two people.

For one thing, the state reserves the right to close off habitats of endangered species.

For another, 24 other people have signed off on this and I can't see where they would not go ballistic if someone gets out of it when they have not.

The argument that some bird is not going to build a nest on a busy beach to me is a spurious one. How many of us have seen birds building nests right outside of doorways and in other places where people are frequently passing by?

That doesn't mean they don't usually abandon such nests, however. But by that time, some state or federal official has already rushed over and closed off the area ...

Someone suggested to me that at the moment a plover was seen even appearing to build a nest on the Newbury beach, there would be a plover BBQ on the beach that same night.

That is as it may be.

I'm always conflicted by the rights of other animals vs. the rights of humans. Humans are the dominant species and well .... on the other hand, maybe the plover serves some really important part in survival of our species?

Anyone?

The Army Corps of Engineers really needs to get the bidding process done for this job and the dredging, a fact that the Daily News conveniently forgets to mention. There is a mandate for the length of time that this process takes. Not to mention that the whole thing has to be approved all up a federal chain of bureaucracy before he job even goes out to bid.

That and the stimulus money involved in the dredging, which would probably be lost if the dredging is not underway by Feb. 17.

This whole project involved many steps and I sort of see the beach management plans as having been one thing that held up everything that came after that.

The easement documents couldn't be drafted until the beach management plans were submitted to the state.

Looking back, I'm sure we will all say there should have been beach management plans already in place before all this went down.