By DAVID SMITH/ecoRI News contributor
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| Charlie Vandemoer: not holding up USFWS' end of interagency agreement (photo by Will Collette) |
But, according to the Stonington, Conn.-based Avalonia
Land Conservancy, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service hasn’t been able to
provide policing service nor has it been able to issue and check permits.
Avalonia, owner of the 35-acre island off the coasts of Rhode
Island and Connecticut, worked out an agreement earlier this
year with the Fish & Wildlife Service to provide enforcement of the nature
preserve’s rules beginning this summer.
The lease was signed, according to the Fish & Wildlife Service
refuge manager for Rhode Island, Charlie Vandemoer, but the agency was unable
to set up the mechanism to collect fees and issue permits online as was
expected by April. That permitting is still being handled by the Como Center in
Borough of Stonington, Conn.
Ackley said she was on the island recently tagging horseshoe crabs
and saw a group of people with two dogs. “I told them that dogs were not
allowed on the island, regardless of whether they are on a leash,” she said.
“They said they would comply but I didn’t wait around.”
Officials are concerned that dogs will walk into birds’ nests in
the sand and either scare birds or kill nestlings. Some of the birds include
piping plovers, a species listed as threatened. Fireworks being exploded on the
island also have been a concern because of the endangerment to birds.
Vandemoer has said he expects to have the details worked out for
next year to handle permit sales online. However, he said that contrary to the
impression of Avalonia officials he has had personnel on the island to talk to
visitors and educate them about conservation efforts for the sandy spit of land
between Watch Hill and Stonington Harbor.
Vandemoer said that there hasn’t been a show of force on the
island. “The first year is more about education,” he said. “We are just talking
with people. If there is a situation then we would address it.”
There were Fish & Wildlife Service personnel on the island
doing shorebird work beginning in April who were interacting with visitors, he
noted. On Memorial Day, two staff members visited the island.
“Doing heavy law enforcement sends the wrong message,” Vandemoer
said. “We can’t be out there 24 hours a day.”
The mile-long island is a popular summer hangout and picnic spot
for boaters. It was once connected to Napatree Point, but that connection was
severed during the 1938 hurricane. Part of Sandy Point is in Rhode Island and
the other in Connecticut.
The land was given to the nonprofit in 1982 by the Alfred
Gildersleeve family of Stonington, to be protected and kept as a nature
preserve. The island serves as breeding ground for a variety of birds,
including the least tern, roseate tern, piping plovers, American oystercatcher
and herring gulls.
Avalonia officials say a lot of the problems stem from camping and
parties, and the resulting litter.