San Mateo County Times
April 14, 2006

Lab can nest among rare birds
Commission OK's research center near endangered
marbled murrelets' habitat

by Julia Scott

PESCADERO — Up in its peaceful nest in the boughs of an old-growth redwood tree, the endangered marbled murrelet would never suspect how bitterly its fate has been contested by the humans below.

The murrelets who make their home at the end of Gazos Creek Road have been the subject of fierce debate amongst environmentalists, who are divided over a proposal to turn a former campground near their nesting habitat into an environmental field-research station.

That a rural educational center devoted to studying and conserving the environment could provoke environmental groups to appeal the project all the way to the California Coastal Commission is a measure of how precarious the birds' existence has become.

Decades of clear-cutting of coastal redwood and Douglas fir trees have decimated Marbled Murrelet populations in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, according to the Coastal Commission. The local population, which nests in the trees and lives and feeds off the coast of Ao Nuevo and other state beaches, has dwindled to fewer than 700 birds, and continues to decline.

Those were the grounds on which the Committee for Green Foothills, the Coastside Habitat Coalition and other local advocacy groups appealed a decision by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors to grant a permit tothe Pescadero Conservation Alliance in 2004. The PCA wants to use a 12-acre piece of land in Butano State Park as a research station for a corps of graduate students and scientists to study coastal habitat.

The groups fear that the project, which would renovate an existing lodge and cabins to accommodate up to 63 people a day, would disturb a group of murrelets nesting in a 10-acre stand of redwoods to the east of the camp. The birds could also migrate to a grove of trees to the west, known to be a potential murrelet habitat.

Humans, and the food they bring with them, are known to attract predatory birds such as ravens and Steller's jays, which steal murrelet eggs and kill their chicks, according to biologists.

It's difficult to know precisely how many murrelets still exist in Northern California, according to Stacy Martinelli, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. For many years, nobody knew where they nested; the first murrelet was spotted at Big Basin Redwoods State Park in 1974.

John Wade, Executive Director of the Pescadero Conservation Alliance, maintains that his group would be vigilant about keeping food indoors and tracking and killing the predators if necessary.

"Ravens and jays go for food sources, but they don't stick around if they don't have any," said Wade.

On Thursday, the Coastal Commission sided with him, rejecting the appeal from environmental groups and the recommendations of its own staff, who argued the project's potential impact would be too great.

The California Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation have all given the project their blessing.

In a letter to the Coastal Commission, State Parks Director Ruth Peterson warned that banning the PCA's project based on "speculation" that human activity would attract predatory birds would set a precedent "of great consequence for the management of many State Parks in the region ... as well as other public and private lands."

The property claimed by the murrelets has long been used for purposes less benign than environmental education, according to Wade. From the 1870s to the 1960s, it was the site of a logging mill that clear-cut much of Gazos Creek Valley. The land was sold to make way for a summer camp in 1965 that saw 150 campers a day.

The Sempervirens Fund bought the property in 1998 with settlement money from litigation over the Apex Houston oil spill, which poisoned several Marbled Murrelets off the Northern California coast in 1986.

Wade said PCA biologists began offering coastal restoration workshops to schoolchildren in 2000, when the group first leased the property, but were forced to desist when the local environmental groups lodged their appeal.

"I'm very frustrated with being in conflict with people who, in a logical world, would be our allies. There are so many other ecological problems on the coast that have to be addressed," said Wade.

On Thursday, the Coastal Commission awarded the Pescadero Conservation Alliance a three-year permit to operate the research lab, with several conditions.

Lennie Roberts, legislative advocate for Committee for Green Foothills, said she expected that "at least one" of the groups that had appealed the project would now sue the Coastal Commission to stop it.

"We have an endangered species that is close to extinction in this area. In this case, I think the politics have overruled the science," Roberts said.

That lawsuit would guarantee the murrelet a very quiet breeding season, which lasts until mid-September. In the meantime, the humans continue to squabble below.

Page last updated September 13, 2010 .