Snakebites Hit Record Highs in Southern States as Suburbs Expand Rapid urbanization and heavy rains lead to more copperhead attacks -via Herp Digest

By Valerie Bauerlein, 8/519, Wall Street Journal

RALEIGH, N.C.—Venomous snakebites are on the rise in the Sunbelt this summer, with North Carolina, Georgia and Texas on track to set records. 

In North Carolina and Georgia, venomous snakebites have been rising for the past several years and are up more than 10% from a year ago, according to the states’ poison-control centers. In Texas, there were 415 reported snakebites in May and June, 27% more than the same period five years ago.

Copperheads represent the vast majority of bites in the three states, and most are in fast-growing suburbs of cities like Raleigh, Atlanta and Dallas. Reasons for the increase include rapid urbanization, as new neighborhoods spring up in what was formerly forest or farmland, and last winter’s record-setting rainfall, which drives snake activity, poison-control workers said.

“There’s no question as we build out more, we’re definitely inhabiting the areas where snakes reside,” said Gaylord Lopez, the managing director of the Georgia Poison Center.

Snakebites take place nationwide, but North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Florida represent a disproportionate 39% of the reported bites, according to a 2016 study of pediatric snakebites led by a University of Louisville epidemiologist. 

Copperheads are the dominant snake in all those states except for Florida, where snakebite activity has been average so far this year, according to Florida’s Poison Control Centers. Florida’s dominant snakes include the eastern coral snake and the cottonmouth.

Copperheads thrive in suburban environments because they have relatively small roaming areas, a strong homing instinct and a willingness to eat “whatever’s available,” from rodents to cicadas, said Jeffrey Beane, herpetology collections manager at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Copperheads also camouflage themselves easily in underbrush or leaf piles with their tan scales and brown triangular markings, he said.

A copperhead recently bit David Weitz, a Raleigh optometrist, as he transplanted rosemary from a flat to a pot at his newly built home on the outskirts of the city. Dr. Weitz, who grew up in Virginia Beach, said he knew enough about snakes to wear gloves but had taken them off to handle the small plants. He said his hand swelled to twice its size, and he was hospitalized for two days while being treated with antivenom.When Dr. Weitz recovered, he said he snake-proofed his 2-acre yard by clearing out underbrush and removing dead logs. “When I walk around my yard, I have a stick with me,” he said. “I hit the ground with it so they scatter.”

Many people who grow up in the Southeast learn to recognize copperheads by their “Hershey Kiss” markings. But in North Carolina, nearly half of the adults were born somewhere else, according to the Census.

Michael Beuhler, an emergency-room toxicologist in Charlotte and the medical director of the Carolinas Poison Center said many of his snakebite patients moved from the Northeast and Midwest where snakes are less common.

“They don’t realize that snakes are part of the environment,” Dr. Beuhler said. “They’re part of the circle of life here.”

Wet winters tend to drive snake activity, according to Grant Lipman, an emergency-room doctor at Stanford University who conducted a 2018 study of 20 years of California snakebite data. He found that snakebites decreased after periods of drought and increased after periods of heavy rain.

This past winter was the wettest on record in the U.S., with 9.01 inches of precipitation, 2.22 more than the average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It is not completely clear why rain drives snake activity, Dr. Lipman said, but he theorizes that heavy rain causes flora and fauna to flourish, creating ready food sources for rodents who become food for snakes. Heavy rains can also drive snakes out of their habitats, according to Mr. Beane, the herpetologist.

To be sure, venomous snake bites are rare in the U.S. compared with other parts of the world. About 7,000 to 8,000 people in the U.S. are bitten each year and about five die, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most fatalities occur when a victim has an allergic reaction or is far from medical treatment when bitten, poison-control experts said.

It is difficult to get accurate data on the number of snake bites, which aren’t tracked by state or federal regulators. The state poison control centers, typically housed in medical centers, track snake encounters by incoming requests for help, particularly from medical professionals seeking help with antivenom dosing.

Mr. Beane and other herpetologists caution against identifying long-term trends from incomplete data sets collected over a relatively short period of time. He also said some people bitten by non-venomous snakes mistakenly report being bitten by copperheads.

To avoid being bitten, Mr. Beane said to clear away piles of leaves, wear shoes while outdoors and use a flashlight when out at night. He also said to leave snakes alone, because they typically won’t bother you unless you bother them.

Mr. Beane said he encourages the skittish to see the good in North Carolina’s abundant copperheads, from their “superb color and pattern” to their role in controlling the rodent and insect population.

“If not, I tell them to move to a place where they don’t occur, like a high-rise apartment,” he said.

Shipwrecks off NC coast harbor tropical migrants

MAY 6, 2019

by Duke University

Tropical and subtropical fish are taking up residence on shipwrecks and other sunken structures off the North Carolina coast. This pattern may continue or even accelerate in coming years given predictions of warming oceans under climate change, a new study co-led by Duke University scientists suggests.

"The artificial reefs created by these structures may be acting as stepping stones for fish that are moving northward and living at the edge of their geographic range, or beyond it, in search of suitable habitat," said Avery B. Paxton, a visiting scholar at the Duke University Marine Laboratory, who was lead author of the study.

"Globally, there is broad evidence that many tropical fish species are shifting their ranges poleward and to deeper waters in response to changing ocean conditions, and what we see on these reefs seems to fit that pattern," she said.

One of the most surprising findings of the study is that the tropical and subtropical fish observed off North Carolina exhibit a strong preference for hanging out on human-made structures versus natural rocky reefs found nearby, noted J. Christopher Taylor, a research ecologist at NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and a co-author of the study.

Read on

Red wolf: the struggle to save one of the rarest animals on Earth

Conservation groups say Trump administration plan that would scale the wolves’ protected area and allow people to shoot the species on private land will snuff out the species

Thu 7 Mar 2019 06.30 GMTLast modified on Thu 7 Mar 2019 06.33 GMT

Attempting to locate one of the rarest animals on the planet, US government scientist Joe Madison pointed an antiquated VHF tracking antenna at a tangle of thick vegetation and twiddled some dials on the receiver. A red wolf, judging by the beeps, was in the vicinity but well-hidden.

 “Did you hear that beep? That’s a six-year-old male we just heard,” said Madison, a Tennessean with a sandy-coloured beard who is manager of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) red wolf program. “I mean, obviously I don’t see anything.”

Sightings of red wolves are uncommon not only due to their elusive nature but also their plummeting population. Only around 30 of the creatures remain in the wild, in a corner of North Carolina, with 18 of them fitted with radio collars that Madison attempts to pick up with his antenna.

An FWS assessment in 2016 warned this vestige could completely vanish within eight years. The scenario now is even grimmer. “We’re already way ahead of where that projection was,” Madison said. “If we stay on the current trajectory it won’t be that long before we lose the population. In fact, we are down to one known breeding pair.”

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North Carolina Allows First Alligator Hunt in More Than 40 Years – via Herp Digest

More than 400 applicants vie for 20 permits in lottery

(HD Editor I think the third to last paragraph in the actual article is wrong. Why alligators where delisted to threatened from endangered)

By Maya Sweedler-Wall Street Journal - Aug. 10, 2018 

A handful of hunters will soon be permitted to bag an animal rarely hunted in North Carolina: an American alligator.

The state’s Wildlife Resources Commission will allow alligator hunting in Hyde County beginning Sept. 1, marking the first sanctioned hunt in the state in more than 40 years. So far, demand is high, with more than 400 people applying for 20 permits, said Alicia Davis, a conservation biologist at the commission.

The monthlong controlled hunt is intended to decrease the alligator population and will target three regions in the county where there have been “frequent alligator conflicts,” according to the county.

Assistant County Manager Kris Noble said the area’s alligator problem has gotten so bad in the past five years that residents no longer swim in local ponds. Ms. Noble stopped taking her Labrador retrievers along on fishing trips to the Inner Banks.

Hyde County, in North Carolina’s coastal plain, is the state’s second largest by total area but the second-least populous. With zero municipalities and fewer than 6,000 residents, as of the last national census in 2010, it has fallen to the county to manage the alligator population.

“A lot of municipalities must deal with downtown traffic and parking, but we deal with resource management and animal control,” Ms. Noble said. “It is pretty obvious to anyone that lives and works here that the alligator...interactions are on the rise.”

The state hasn’t undertaken a large-scale study of its alligator population since the 1970s, so it can’t prove more gator-related complaints actually means there are more alligators, Ms. Davis said.

“We’ve been seeing an increase in the number of calls we get from the public. At least some of that is attributed to development and human population growth,” said Ms. Davis, adding that no people have reported injuries from alligators this summer.

Some said the hunt, frequently conducted from a boat, could be challenging. Alligators have found their way into the county’s drainage pumps, an important part of flood 

prevention. They also reside in canals, many of which are as narrow as 6 or 8 feet, said resident Chase Luker, who works at outdoor-adventure company Dare to Hyde.

Mr. Luker, who didn’t apply for a permit, said the company leads hunting trips for waterfowl, turkey and the occasional black bear—but it is not equipped to lead alligator-hunting excursions. He said many county residents also balked at the permit fee. If selected in the lottery, in-state permit holders must pay $250 and out-of-state permit holders, $500.

Hyde County, which lies to the south of Alligator River, is one of only 10 in North Carolina that can, with permission from the Wildlife Resources Commission, reduce its alligator population via hunting. Hyde County was the only county to apply to the commission this year, Ms. Davis said.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has classified the American alligator as a threatened species since 1987 to help protect the similar-looking American crocodile, which is endangered. Fewer than 10 states offer annual hunting seasons, and each closely monitors the number of animals killed and the regions in which the hunts take place.

Permit holders will be selected for the North Carolina hunt via lottery, which closes on Aug. 10, and will be allowed one kill.

SURPRISING SIGHTINGS

Stephen Dinkelacker, a biology professor at Framingham State University, created the Coastal NC Alligator Research program to study and track alligators in the state. In almost two decades, he has found alligators in some unusual places.

The Outer Banks

Kitty Hawk, a town in the Outer Banks located about 3 miles off the mainland, made headlines when residents reported an alligator there in May.

The Coastal NC Alligator Research team happened to be nearby, so they managed to tag the 9½-foot specimen and release it. According to news reports, it was the first record of an alligator on the island side of the Outer Banks.

“The idea that saltwater is a barrier or impediment isn’t realistic. Alligators can swim,” Mr. Dinkelacker said.

Dare County Bombing Range

The Dare County Bombing Range serves as a practice facility for U.S. Navy and Air Force flight crews. But the noisy airplanes didn’t seem to deter an alligator, Mr. Dinkelacker said. It showed up near a pond in the bombing range just over a week ago.

The alligator, which was tagged, was also seen in 2013 and 2014 in a wildlife refuge, and traveled between 11 and 16 miles to the bombing range, according to the research group.

Stand-alone Pond

In regions alligators frequent, any waterway can host a specimen. But sometimes, Mr. Dinkelacker said, he finds gators in ponds that aren’t connected to a canal or ditch: “You’re like, how did you walk here?”

Alligators 'Snorkel' to Survive Ice-Covered Swamp

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | January 10, 2018 07:24am ET

A video showing alligator snouts poking out though an ice-covered swamp in North Carolina during last week's cold snap may look like the preview of an avant-garde art installation, but it actually depicts an adaptive trick that helps these reptiles survive in winter weather, a wildlife ecologist said.

Unlike mammals, alligators rely on ambient temperature to keep their bodies warm, which is why they can often be found basking in the sun or hanging out in air-pocketed burrows they've dug into the banks of rivers and lakes.

But when it gets so cold that their ponds freeze over, some alligators are known to swim to the surface and poke their snouts above the icy water so they can breathe properly, James Perran Ross, a retired associate scientist of wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Florida, told Live Science. [Alligator Alley: Pictures of Monster Reptiles]

Read on  

Reel Big: 112-Pound Catfish Caught in North Carolina

A gigantic, 112-lb. (50 kilograms) catfish was reeled in by a North Carolina man the day before Thanksgiving, according to local news reports.

The man, Riahn Brewington, caught the massive fish in the northeast section of Cape Fear River in North Carolina, local ABC affiliate WWAY reported. Despite its mammoth size, the fish was 5 lbs. (2.3 kg) shy of the state record for a reeled-in catfish.

Brewington said he could tell the catch was big, but he had only a 10-lb. (4.5 kg) line on his fishing rod.

A gigantic, 112-lb. (50 kilograms) catfish was reeled in by a North Carolina man the day before Thanksgiving, according to local news reports.

The man, Riahn Brewington, caught the massive fish in the northeast section of Cape Fear River in North Carolina, local ABC affiliate WWAY reported. Despite its mammoth size, the fish was 5 lbs. (2.3 kg) shy of the state record for a reeled-in catfish.

Brewington said he could tell the catch was big, but he had only a 10-lb. (4.5 kg) line on his fishing rod.

"In the water, it felt like it was pretty big … I thought it would have already snapped the line," Brewington told WWAY. "I didn't realize how big he was until I actually got my hands underneath him."

The beast pulled all the slack from the line, twice, during a 30-minute battle, before Brewington finally reeled in the catfish, WWAY reported. The fisherman took a few photos with the incredible catch, but then released the catfish back into the river.




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Researchers find homes harbor nearly 500 different species of arthropods

JANUARY 20, 2016

by Brett Smith

We all know there’s a random ant or two roaming our house right now, looking for a dropped crumb. Or, a cobweb spider – doing what else – making a cobweb.

But what if it told you there are about 500 different kinds of bugs skittering around your happy home? Well, it’s true – according to a new study in the journal PeerJ.

“This was exploratory work to help us get an understanding of which arthropods are found in our homes,” study author Matt Bertone, an entomologist at North Carolina State University, said in a statement. “Nobody had done an exhaustive inventory like this one, and we found that our homes host far more biodiversity than most people would expect.”

In the study, researchers visited 50 houses within 30 miles of Raleigh, NC. Across all 50 homes, the scientists recognized nearly 580 several morphospecies of arthropod from more than 300 arthrodpod families. The team found homes had between 32 and 211 morphospecies, a term used to define animal types that are easily separable by morphological factors that are noticeable to individuals without extensive taxonomic training. The study team also found between 24 and 128 distinct families. The most commonly gathered groups were beetles, flies, ants and book lice.

“While we collected a remarkable diversity of these creatures, we don’t want people to get the impression that all of these species are actually living in everyone’s homes,” Bertone said. “Many of the arthropods we found had clearly wandered in from outdoors, been brought in on cut flowers or were otherwise accidentally introduced. Because they’re not equipped to live in our homes, they usually die pretty quickly.”

For example, the researchers discovered gall midges in many homes. These tiny bugs need to feed on outdoor plants and quickly die once they enter our homes.

Read more at

Hundreds of cold-stunned young sea turtles rescued from frigid North Carolina waters by Brett Smith

JANUARY 12, 2016

With its wild temperature swings and unusual mild spells, this winter has caught many of us off guard—including, it seems, a massive cluster of sea turtles.

According to a CNN report, about 600 juvenile turtles swimming off the North Carolina coast were literally stunned by a sudden drop in water temperature. A phenomenon that can occur in shallow waters, a quick drop in temperatures induces a condition in sea turtles similar to hypothermia."These guys should be in the 70 degree temperatures, and they were down in the 50s," Michele Lamping, an aquarist at North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

When a turtle becomes cold stunned, it quits swimming and floats with the current. Some turtles wind up on shore, some die, and some fall victim to predators.

Rescuers captured more than 600 turtles in two days; 450 were delivered to North Carolina's three aquariums while others were sent to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City, NC.

"Keep these little ones in your thoughts and send them positive energy. Many didn't make it, but most are fighting to live," the rehab center said via its Facebook page.

Claire Aubel, a spokeswoman with the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, told CNN that 200 turtles will be released Friday, probably near the Georgia-Florida border. Most of the rescued turtles were green sea turtles, some were loggerhead turtles, and a few were Kemp's ridley turtles.

Read more at

Salamanders living in the state (North Carolina) need better protection – via Herp Digest

The Daily Tar Heel - Op-Ed 11/2/15

North Carolina is home to over 56 different types of salamanders, giving the state one of the most diverse salamander populations in the world. Some of these species live in incredibly small habitats in remote parts of the western part of the state. Sadly, due to deforestation and other anthropogenic causes, populations are on the decline. Some of these species uniquely exist within this state and it is the job of all living within its borders, especially policymakers, to protect these super cool creatures. One such species is the green salamander, which lives in very small pockets in the western part of the state. This species is highly reclusive. The green salamander is about five inches long and can live up to 10 years. It also uses camouflage to blend into its surroundings. It is typically nocturnal, preferring to venture out during the cooler parts of each day to look for food.

Enormous prehistoric Megalodon teeth wash up on North Carolina shore

OCTOBER 26, 2015

by Savanna Walker

Enormous prehistoric shark teeth have washed up on a North Carolina beach after a storm, and the biggest are million year old Megalodon teeth, which are as large as an adult’s hand. *Shudders*

Starting in October, teeth have been found from Surf City to North Topsail Beach due to stormy weather and high tides. Local beachgoer Denny Bland found one a Megalodon tooth that was almost six inches long—only an inch shorter than the largest ever found.

About these terrifying creatures

Megalodon went extinct about 2.6 million years ago and was the largest shark to ever live at a terrifying 60 feet long. (That’s about three times the size of a great white!) Megalodon continually evolved to grow bigger over its 14-million year existence, but scientists are unsure why this was the case.

"Perhaps something was going on with the productivity and climate that produced that pattern, or with their prey and their competitors that made the species become large," said study co-author Catalina Pimiento from the University of Florida and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. And while Megalodon’s colossal size may have led to its extinction, while it lived it was a ferocious predator with a jaw three times as strong as a Tyrannosaurus rex.

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Manatees show up in North Carolina again as more 'sea cows' leave Florida

The ‘sea cows’ have also traveled north to Georgia and even Virginia

There have been nine sightings in North Carolina this year

Associated Press in Wilmington, North Carolina

Thursday 30 July 2015 16.38 BST

Last modified on Thursday 30 July 201516.53 BST

Researchers say manatees have again been spotted in the marinas and waters in south-eastern North Carolina – far from their natural Florida habitat.

The StarNews of Wilmington reported that local researchers have found that the manatees have travelled north to Georgia, the Carolinas and even Virginia.

Erin Cummings with the University of North Carolina Wilmington has charted the “sea cows” in North Carolina waters since the 1990s. Cummings says manatees have been reported in North Carolina dating to the 1930s.

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7 Shark Attacks in 3 Weeks: Are North Carolina Beaches Safe?

by Elizabeth Palermo, Staff Writer | July 02, 2015 03:41pm ET

Fourth of July weekend is a popular time to hit the beach, but this year, vacationers may not be the only ones swarming the waters off North Carolina. In the past three weeks, there have been seven shark attacks along the state's coast, which may leave some beachgoers wondering if it's time to get out of the water.

Well, wonder no more. There's only one surefire way to avoid a shark bite this holiday weekend, and that's to stay on land, according to shark experts.

"A shark attack is an equation of shark plus human equals attack, and we can't really deal with the shark part that well, so we have to deal with the human part," said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History.

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Shark Bites Two: Possible Explanations for Attacks

A trip to the beach turned terrifying for two young people on Sunday when each was attacked by a shark while wading in waist-deep water off the coast of Oak Island, North Carolina. Experts in marine science say the closeness of the two attacks was quite unusual.

Both the 12-year-old girl and 16-year-old-boy survived their separate attacks, which occurred 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) apart and within 90 minutes of one another. These incidents follow on the heels of another shark attack that took place last Thursday (June 11) at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, a barrier island about 15 miles (24 km) west of Oak Island, according to a report by the Associated Press.

There haven't been so many severe attacks, so close together, in decades, said Dan Abel, a professor of marine science at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

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Snakes of North Carolina iPhone App- FREE! - via Herp Digest

This app features more than 150 color photographs and descriptions of the 37 non-venomous and venomous snakes found in North Carolina. Additionally, it provides information about the important roles snakes play in the state’s ecosystems, provides information on snake conservation efforts, provides helpful information regarding snakebite and answers frequently asked questions, such as “Do snakes chase people?” and “Are snakes slimy?” 

This app is based on the book A Guide to the Snakes of North Carolina written by Michael E. Dorcas which is available on Amazon.

·         Identify all 37 species of snakes with in-depth descriptions including information on diet/feeding, habitat/range, reproduction and miscellaneous facts. 

·         Scroll through multiple images of each species.

·         Geographic range map of each species with county boundaries.

·         Search for species by both common name and scientific name.

·         Information about what to do if bitten by a venomous snake.

DOWNLOAD by clicking HERE from within Mail on your iPhone 

Produced by the Davidson College Herpetology Lab

App developed by Christian Hatch, Cyrus Bahram, and Patrick Devlin

Only available for iPhone

Michael E. Dorcas, Ph.D.

Nancy and Erwin Maddrey Professor of Biology

Department of Biology

Davidson College

Davidson, NC 28035-7118

704-894-2727

midorcas@davidson.edu

www.bio.davidson.edu/dorcas

midorcas@davidson.edu

www.bio.davidson.edu/dorcas

New species of aetosaur discovered in North Carolina

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Researchers have discovered a new species of aetosaur, a distant relative of the crocodile which roamed the Earth more than 200 million years ago in one of the most unlikely places: Raleigh, North Carolina.

According to the Jefferson Post, the armor plates were discovered and identified by Dr. Andrew B. Heckert, a professor at the Appalachian State University Department of Geology, and a team of experts from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. They documented the creature as a new genus and species of aetosaur, and named it Gorgetosuchus pekinensis.

“Aetosaurs are an extinct group of reptiles from the Triassic period from the lineage that eventually evolved into crocodiles,” Dr. Heckert, who was lead author of the recently-published paper, told the Asheville Citizen-Times on Saturday. “They were not dinosaurs, but superficially look like some of the much larger armored dinosaurs that would evolve later.”

Read more at

Bear Shooting Investigation

Updated: Monday, June 2 2014, 07:13 PM EDT 

A Maggie Valley homeowner says he shot and killed a mother bear when it charged at him early Monday morning. He tells News 13 the bear was looking for food from his bird feeders in the back of his home, in the Sheepback Mountain community. 

The homeowner, who asked News 13 not to be identified, says when he checked on noise on the porch, the bear charged him, and he shot to protect himself. He says he didn't know the bear had three cubs nearby. "I heard her come out of the creek, and she started running towards me, most unfortunate this happened. But it could have been my wife who would not have been able to defend herself," he says. 

Sergeant Andrew Helton with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission says the mother bear was protecting her cubs. He says it appears the homeowner acted out of self-protection. "This case will still be open for investigation. We're going to pursue, talk to the D.A. about everything that happened here. And go from there," says Helton. Wildlife officials say if a bear approaches a bird feeder, don't confront it.

Read More at:

Nightmarish looking deep sea fish washes up on NC shore

A deep sea lancetfish washed up alive on a Nags Head, North Carolina beach on Monday. WGHP Fox 8 reports that because it is an open ocean fish, lancetfish are rarely seen near shore. North Carolina Aquarium worker Daryl Law sent photos of the lancetfish to the station. He said that the fish was released after the photos were taken.

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Hunter bags 35-stone boar you have to see to believe

'It takes your breath away for a second to realise how big this hog is,' hunting club owner says

By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News | Yahoo News – Thu, Mar 13, 2014

It doesn't even look real.

A hunter in North Carolina says he bagged a 35-stone wild pig last month.

Jett Webb, a 34-year-old from Conetoe, N.C., was hunting boar at the White Oak Ranch Hunting Club in Bertie County on Feb. 28 when he spotted the giant swine.

"It was very surreal,” Webb told WNCT-TV. “It was a shock. It was very humbling to say the least, when you walk up on a beast that big and you say, 'Oh my gosh. I had no idea that there could be something that big running around the woods of Eastern North Carolina.’"

The beast had been seen on trail camera footage years ago, but hunters had failed to capture it until Webb, who says he fired a single shot from a .308-calibre AR-15 rifle from about 50 yards, took it down.

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NC beach communities wary of proposed turtle rules – via Herp Digest

By Martha Waggoner, The Associated Press, Saturday, October 19, 2013

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — One of the first sights visitors to Caswell Beach see are signs identifying the town as a turtle sanctuary. At the town hall, the best-selling T-shirt features turtles. And during loggerhead hatching season, volunteer residents watch over turtle nests and help the newborns reach the sea.

But Mayor Harry Simmons is concerned the intense focus on the turtles will be to the detriment of human residents and tourists, who he says could lose access to the beach if environmentalists get their wish to designate it a "critical habitat" for the turtles.

Environmentalists and federal government officials say a "critical habitat" designation will only affect actions by federal agencies in the area, not those of state and local governments. But Simmons and others say they have actually seen local communities affected: They've seen beaches closed to people farther up the coast, in Dare County, to protect turtles and birds, and they fear the same will happen at their beaches.

"I do think the people here are over the top in support of the turtles to the point that they will take some efforts to not have lights on on the oceanside of oceanfront houses" to avoid disorienting the turtles, Simmons said. "Does it mean, though, they want to tear down the houses and move to Chadbourn? No. The human habitat is as important. And it's a good balance we have now."

The proposals that have upset Simmons and other leaders of beach communities in North Carolina come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which regulates turtles on the beach, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees turtles in the water.

One proposal would declare 739 miles of beaches from Mississippi to North Carolina as critical habitats for loggerhead turtles, which the government lists as a threatened species. In North Carolina, the proposal covers 96 miles of beaches in Brunswick, Carteret, New Hanover, Onslow and Pender counties.

The Fisheries Service, meanwhile, has proposed that waters near the designated beaches, as well as additional waters off North Carolina and Florida and migratory corridors between those two states, also be designated as critical. The federal agencies are expected to have a final rule ready in July 2014.

Environmental groups filed petitions and lawsuits, prompting the federal agencies to consider the loggerhead turtle not as one global population but as nine distinct populations, including the one that lives in North Carolina, now considered part of a northwest Atlantic population. The groups then sought and got the "critical habitat" designation assigned to each loggerhead population.

Chuck Underwood, a Fish and Wildlife spokesman, said if the designation is also given to the beaches, it won't change much because the turtle is already regulated as a threatened species. Beach communities are concentrating on a part of the proposal that lists threats to the turtles, including recreational activities on the beach. They need to read further where the service lists all the actions taken to alleviate that threat, he said.

"Yes, beach driving is a threat. Yes, beach access is a threat," he said. "That is absolutely true. But the consideration of that impact is already part of the current permitting process."

But Greg "Rudi" Rudolph, shore protection manager for Carteret County, and other beach community leaders say they believe that if the beaches themselves are now designated as critical habitats, groups will keep suing until access is limited to them just as it is in Dare County.

"If you talk to the FWS, you're going to hear, 'This is nothing,'" Rudolph said. But if the federal agencies don't change the way the beaches are managed, the same groups that sued for the critical habitat will then sue for more protections, he said.

Underwood didn't dispute that possibility. "We heard some concerns that third parties might use critical habitat as another argument in litigation," he said. "That would be up to those third parties."

The Carteret County Board of Commissioners in August filed a notice of intent to sue if beaches there are designated as critical habitats. Other beach communities have approved resolutions against the designation, and North Carolina's Department of Environment and Natural Resources has filed a public comment, asking the Fish and Wildlife Service to, among other things, clarify the potential effects of the designation.

"We can readily foresee increased planning, permitting, construction and monitoring costs — both monetary, and in time — for projects that are already subject to significant regulatory reviews and permit conditions," department officials wrote.

While much of the focus is on the land designation, fishermen are worried about additional restrictions in the water, said Britton Shackelford of Wanchese, president of N.C. Watermen United.

"Fishermen have been dealing with sea turtles for 10 years," he said, particularly regarding large-mesh gill-net fishing. "We've had the water-based issue of turtles. And now it's getting ready to cross into land."

The new proposed rules "are going to further exacerbate a very bad situation for fishermen now," he said.

Because the "critical habitat" designation requires federal agencies, but not private, state or local groups, to examine the effect of their actions on the turtle's environment, the beach communities don't need to worry so much, said Sierra Weaver, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, or SELC, a Chapel Hill-based advocacy group.

Since turtles have been protected for 40 years or so, the designation merely adds another layer of protection, she said.

"I think the big problem we have is misinformation," Weaver said. "There's a lot of concern about what this means. In reality, it is likely to have little to no impact on these local communities. North Carolina beach communities have a long history of sea turtle protections and having vibrant coastal economies. There's no reason that the 'critical habitat' designation should change that."

But local governments are as wary of the SELC as they are of the federal government, viewing the environmental group as one of several responsible for beach closures in Dare County and for blocking the state's preferred replacement for the Bonner Bridge, the only road link between Hatteras Island the mainland.

And the governments have their own public relations headaches: It's not easy to appear to be against protections for sea turtles along the North Carolina coast where people "have a strong affinity for those big brown eyes and flippers," Rudolph said. "Two-thirds of our restaurants seem to have turtle or tortuga (the Spanish word for turtle) in their name."

Tribal elders say they'll sue Cherokee NC bear zoo

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians said Wednesday they're planning to sue a North Carolina roadside zoo that houses bears in concrete pits on reservation land unless they release the animals to a reputable sanctuary.

An attorney for two tribal elders filed a notice of intent to sue the operators of the Cherokee Bear Park for violating the federal Endangered Species Act.

The act allows citizens to file lawsuits for violations, but it requires them to give 60-days' notice to the violators and federal regulators, said James Whitlock, an attorney for tribal elders Amy Walker and Peggy Hill.

If the bear park doesn't come into compliance, the next step is to file a federal lawsuit, he said.

Walker and Hill said the bears are being held in tiny cages in barren concrete pits.

"The Cherokee Bear Zoo is an open concrete grave for these intelligent animals and they must be move from the despicable facility to a place where they'll cared for, not abused and neglected," Walker said.

The owners of the bear park could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

This is the latest development in the long, public campaign to close three privately owned bear zoos on the Cherokee Indian Reservation: Cherokee Bear Zoo, Chief Saunooke Bear Park and Santa's Land.

Earlier this year, the Chief Saunooke Bear Park's 11 bears, including three grizzlies, were taken to a 50-acre animal sanctuary in Texas. The move came after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the federal Animal Welfare Act, suspended the park's exhibitor's license and fined the owner $20,000 over inhumane conditions.

Inspectors found that the zoo was failing to provide the bears with appropriate food, proper veterinary care and a safe enclosure.

Continued