Browsing by Subject "protection"

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    Local Wetland Protection in the Hudson Valley
    (2010-04-29T18:45:26Z) Griggs, David
    A 2001 US Supreme Court decision limiting the scope of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act by eliminating federal authority over isolated wetlands has shifted the burden for regulating wetlands to states and local governments. Given New York State’s current wetland regulations, the gap in the federal wetland regulations can not be filled at the state level. This study centered on the question of whether local wetland protection ordinances can fill this regulatory gap. Local wetland protection laws in the Hudson Valley were surveyed to provide insight into how many municipalities have local wetland protection ordinances, and to provide data as to the level of wetland protection. Of the 240 towns and villages located in the 10 counties in the Hudson Valley, only 30 percent have local wetland protection laws. Most of these municipalities also regulate buffers around wetlands and watercourses. Almost half of the municipalities with ordinances regulate wetland areas down to no minimum size threshold which includes isolated wetlands, which therefore exceeds federal wetland regulations and fills this regulatory gap. The study also included an analysis of municipalities that recently have passed, failed or is currently pursuing wetland protection ordinances to determine what challenges and issues were faced and what elements of the law required compromising. Officials agreed getting the public involved early in the procedures was the most important issue. Political alignment was proved to determine the likelihood of a municipality to have such ordinances. Municipalities that failed to implement wetland protection regulations appeared to result from misinformation or a lack of information provided to the public. The most controversial element of these regulations is the buffer areas. Most towns had to compromise on the buffer areas. A grandfathering clause was also significant in getting the public to endorse the new regulations. Typically, activities surrounding residential and agricultural properties were important issues. Several recently passed wetland and watercourse regulations were the result of public concern for health and safety issues such as flooding events.
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    Protecting Surf Breaks and Surfing Areas in California
    (2015-04-21) Blum, Michael
    In California, surfing is part of a 24 billion dollar coastal economy, a form of water-based recreation recognized in state coastal policy, and is positively identified with the state’s broad history and culture. Where surfing occurs there exist recreational opportunities, history and culture, and economic impact. Yet, surfing’s value is often not recognized or is ignored in coastal management and development decisions. Consequently, the surfing experience may be diminished by a variety of threats. These threats may have broad impacts on coastal environments, uses and user groups, but they are particularly acute for surfing, which depends on surf breaks both as a site-specific biophysical amenity and a cultural focusing point. When fully developed, these threats have resulted in the permanent loss of surf breaks. In this project, case studies formed through key informant interviews and a review of relevant literature compared international cases of surf break protection to recent efforts in California. Protecting surf breaks in other countries has been initiated either as a reaction to an imminent threat or through a proactive interest in recognizing a surfing resource’s value, and has required new collaborations between private sector project proponents and management authorities. In California, where efforts have recognized and even honored surf breaks more than protected them, such collaborations have yet to form. Emergent themes from the case studies informed three conservation paths, or tracks, for surf break protection: recreational; cultural or historical; and natural heritage. Federal and state statutory frameworks, in particular the California Marine Managed Areas Improvement Act (2000), California Coastal Act (1976), and National Historic Preservation Act (1966), match these tracks and can be applied proactively, and likely in combination, to protect spatially-explicit, site-specific areas such as surf breaks. However, to date in California and, more generally in the United States, protected marine areas have overwhelmingly been established to protect imperiled species and habitat. Developing program-level capacity to recognize and protect other sources of coastal resource value – such as cultural, historical, and recreational value – provides communities an opportunity to more fully express their interests in the coastal and ocean public trust context.