Dan's Papers - July 27, 2007 - Evacuate Southampton?

Two piping plovers, a male and a female, have built a nest and are raising hatchlings in downtown Southampton, right in the middle of Monument Square next to one of the stacks of cannonballs. They were found because of the hatchlings' peeping.

This is the first time these endangered birds have ever built a nest anywhere but on our beaches. And of course, a wide area around the nest is going to have to be evacuated.

"We do not understand how anyone could have overlooked this nest," said Mayor Epley. "It's apparently been right there in plain sight for some time. What luck that officer Parsons heard the cheeping amidst all this traffic."

Officer Parsons is a traffic control officer who carries a stick with chalk on the end to mark tires.

For the moment, the only piece of downtown Southampton off-limits to humans is Monument Square itself, which was roped off with yellow crime tape around noon on Monday. But interns from the Environmental Protection Agency have been down there with measuring tapes to determine what the EPA says will be the required 3,000-foot radius of the birds' "oasis of tranquility" within which the darling little creatures will nurture their young and raise them without disturbance.

This morning on Jobs Lane, we caught up with one of these interns -- a young woman named Heather Greene from Antioch College.

"The Chief is coming," she said, referring to the head of the EPA. "After that, the paperwork will have to be done," she said. "Then we'll have to clear the area."

We asked if the interns have finished with their measurements.

"Almost," she said. "We have double the number of interns we normally have on site. This is a very big deal. Eight of us were choppered in last night. With the amount of activity we have in downtown Southampton, we consider this an emergency."

"You choppered in? Isn't a chopper one of the things that can't be near a plover's nest?"

"We choppered in to East Hampton airport, which is well outside the projected evacuation area. Then we bicycled here."

We asked what would have to be evacuated while the plovers nest.

"As I said, we haven't finished. But so far, All of Hill Street as far as the Dan's Papers office. All of Main Street, all of Nugent Street and Job's Lane up to the Southampton Museum. And Hampton Road as far down as the Townhouse Deli."

"Is Townhouse Deli in or out?" we asked. We were thinking of lunch.

"The cut-off is down the middle. The cooking area and deli case are okay. But the front door and the shelves for pantry goods and soft drinks will be out of bounds."

"How will people get in or out?"

"I think they have a back door on the ok side."

"And La Parmigiana will have to close?"

"Oh yes. Though I must say that will be a big loss. We ate dinner there yesterday. Delicious."

Heather told us they hadn't yet measured how far the banned area goes down South Main Street or across Lake Agawam. So they didn't yet know if the Bathing Association and the Meadow Club would have to be evacuated. Jagger Lane and Waldbaums might be okay.

We asked how long everyone would have to stay out of the affected area.

"It's hard to say. Usually, the nesting is done by the third week in August. But we've never had piping plovers nesting anywhere but on the beach. So we don't know about these."

As almost everybody knows, many beach areas in the Hamptons have been made off-limits to humans this summer, just as they have for the past ten summers. In Southampton, whole sections of the beach by Meadow Lane are bordered off with snow fencing due to the nests. In East Hampton, two piping plovers came to nest just 100 yards to the east of Main Beach, resulting in the cancellation of this year's Fourth of July fireworks. And in Napeague, the New York State Park Commission shut down one of their four oceanfront parks, closing off nearly a mile of beaches. The signs are up this year, just as they were two years ago, on the Napeague Stretch west of Cyril's Bar and Lunch for two miles, that the beaches are closed.

As we all know, however, the little piping plovers are very important to the ecology of the earth, and the efforts here to protect their nesting grounds have resulted in a huge leap in the piping plover count held every September, along with the expected improvement in global warming. Six years ago, there were just 185 nests on eastern Long Island. This year, there are more than 450.

As for downtown Southampton, the evacuation will probably begin sometime next week.

Heather swung around her right arm, indicating all the traffic and pedestrians in Monument Square.

"Frankly, I don't understand why this particular couple chose to make their nest in the middle of all this. You can hardly hear yourself think. What were they thinking?"

We talked to some other people on Jobs Lane about the closing. Everybody knew about it. The discovery of the nests has spread like wildfire.

"I think it will be terrible if they have to close Saks Fifth Avenue," one well-dressed woman said.

"It's outrageous that they would have to close the Parrish Art Museum," the handsome man in a white suit beside her added.

"We'll have to drive six miles to get to a movie," said a kid with a skateboard. We tried to get an interview with the President of the Southampton Chamber of Commerce, but were told she had gone into shock and had been taken to Southampton Hospital.

Mayor Epley said he would do anything in his power to prevent the closing and evacuation of downtown.

"Our economic survival depends upon the downtown staying open," he said. "I am looking into seeing if we can't carefully pick up the nest and move it -- though one problem is that nobody has volunteered to offer up THEIR house and grounds for the rest of the summer. So I don't know what we could do. We've got to find SOMEWHERE."

He mentioned an area of a small park that is closed off by hedgerows up by the 7-Eleven where he thought the plover nest might be moved to.

On the other hand, the Mayor's police department has already intercepted several attempts to harm the piping plover nest during the night.

Abraham Corwith was arrested at two a.m. carrying a can of gasoline and a blowtorch toward Monument Square. He's been charged with intent to cause arson. At four a.m., Harrison Forrest was arrested while carrying two tiny blindfolds and a wicker hamper basket. Under interrogation, he admitted that he had intended to take the nest and everything in it down to the beach somewhere. His dad, he said, owns a shoe store on the lane. He's been charged with intent to commit a kidnapping.

Reportedly, the head of the State EPA will be coming in later today, bearing about five miles of yellow crime tape, according to people who saw him get in the chopper in Albany just before we went to press.

He will make his final decision about the plovers at midnight next Thursay, after which, as soon as the paperwork is completed, the mass evacuation will begin.

Remember the little piping plovers and their little peeping hatchlings and try to do this in an orderly fashion.