[va-bird] Re: Fwd: CBBT: Please send positive comments to new Executive Director
- From: Phoebetria@xxxxxxx
- To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 16:23:41 EST
In a message dated 1/6/06 3:57:13 PM, pmkane1953@xxxxxxx writes:
In my opinion, if the CBBT is serious about wanting to make the
islands available to birders, it should be thinking about reducing the
size of its birding footprint and working on a policy to vet CBBT
birders. For instance, the CBBT might decide that birding will be
permitted on the islands on a certain number of days per month and then
during certain daylight hours only. The number of open CBBT birding
days and hours could be negotiated by the CBBT security/birding
committee.
Reducing the size of the CBBT birding foot print will make it easier
for the CBBT to check birders into and out of the facility. It will
allow the CBBT to schedule, manage, and deploy its law enforcement
assetts on days when the islands are open to birders in a much more
targeted way. Perhaps a few local CBBT birders might be recruited to
act as volunteers on days when the CBBT is open to birders. Birders
should be physically checked into the CBBT, and when leaving the CBBT
we should be required to phone ourselves out of the facility at a
minimum.
For those who have come late to this topic: Again, these, and many, many
other possible scenarios, were discussed at great length by CBBT officials and
representatives of Audubon, ABA, VSO, and other groups. The
birding/conservation groups jointly proposed concrete and very detailed
protocols for each
permutation - right down to what brand of ID card system could be used, what
specific equipment would work best for checks of vehicles and persons, what
brand/make/model of lock could be used for the small gates (we suggested a
model with
changeable combination), and so forth and so on. No stone was left unturned
- we consulted people with backgrounds in the military, Homeland Security,
nuclear plant security, private security, and we interviewed a great diversity
of experts on terrorism. It was, of course, our intention to preserve a
privilege very similar to the one we already had, at little or no added cost to
us.
Virtually every item on Paul Kane's list, in fact, was on the table and
discussed over and over again. In the end, it was for the Security Division
to
pick and choose what it liked from the list and to offer a take-it-or-leave-it
scenario. Alas, one individual birder, whom I will not name, met face-to-face
privately with security personnel (against the urgings not to do so that were
posted to this listserv) and suggested the babysitting-for-hourly-pay
structure. I was quite angry that this occurred and still feel that it was an
act
of sabotage as far as the formal 'negotiations' were concerned. On a personal
level, it has curtailed my birding out here to the point that I have been out
birding on the CBBT once in the past 10 months (I used to bird there 1-3
times per week). However, after letting the ire cool, I can concede that it is
possible that we might have lost birding privileges entirely had this fee
structure not been suggested. However, we'll never know: once this individual
had
made the suggestion, it was on the table permanently, taking myself, Teta
Kain, Mitchell Byrd, Bob Ake, and others by complete surprise. We hope that
it
can be reduced in months or years to come, of course, but it may take some time
to undo what has been done.
For those who have not followed these discussions for the past 10 months, it
might be worthwhile to read some of the postings archived at
//www.freelists.org/archives/va-bird. It's good to keep thinking through
our woeful
current situation and proposing changes, but we should try to break new ground
in
this forum rather than reinvent the wheel. As for attacking the Bush
administration and other things mentioned in earlier postings - that's fine,
but I
don't see that they bear on the matter at hand or relate to the purview of this
listserv.
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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