On the heels of successful western snowy plover nesting in 2015, Vandenberg Air Force Base is set to launch seasonal restrictions at its beaches Tuesday, limiting coastal access for people to protect the shorebird.
Between March 1 and Sept. 30, only one-half mile of Surf Beach — the closest coastal access for Lompoc Valley residents — will be open to people due to the western snowy plover’s nesting season.
Additionally, one-half mile of Minuteman Beach and one-quarter mile of Wall Beach will be open.
All other sections will be closed under an agreement between the Air Force and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to protect people’s access to the coast while aiding the western snowy plover’s recovery.
Under the Endangered Species Act, as a federal landowner, the Air Force is held to a higher standard for protecting the plover compared to neighboring beaches along the Central Coast, authorities have said.
“It’s a must-do for the base,” Samantha Kaisersatt, a biologist with the 30th Civil Engineer Squadron, said in a recent presentation to the Lompoc City Council.
“The base is dedicated to keeping recreational access on the beaches,” she added.
The restrictions anger Lompoc Valley residents, with Councilman Dirk Starbuck telling Kaisersatt, “Obviously, they’re very important to national security the way you’re protecting them out there.”
The approximately 15-year-old agreement sets limits of 50 violations for Surf and 10 each for Wall and Minuteman beaches.
“Every entry into a closed area counts against the violation limit,” Kaisersatt said. “So even footprints in the closed area will count against the violation limit.”
Once the limit is reached, that beach must close for the remainder of the nesting season, which has occurred for the past four years at Surf Beach.
Last year saw the earliest closure — June 3 — making Surf Beach off limits for nearly four months.
In preparation for another nesting season, the Air Force has undertaken efforts to benefit the tiny bird by ridding the dunes of non-native vegetation to make more room for nests.
Current eradication efforts are focused on 840 acres of Minuteman Beach, Kaisersatt added. A Congressional appropriation provided $725,000 to complete this work over five years, she said.
Projects include eradicating invasive plant species, conducting prescribed burns and contouring dunes.
Kaisersatt said the snowy plover management program has multiple components.
“One of the biggest management activities we conduct on Vandenberg is predator management,” she said.
“Two of the biggest predators we see on base are coyotes and ravens, but we also get some predation by birds of prey such as peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk and other things that we have to manage throughout the year.”
With 15 miles of sandy beaches along its more than 30 miles of coastline, Vandenberg is considered key to the snowy plovers’ recovery, officials have said.
The snowy plover range spans from southern Washington to Baja California, but Vandenberg likely accounts for the largest number of birds, or approximately 25 percent of the population, Kaisersatt said.
Under federal goals outlined in the recovery plan, base beaches must record a population of 400 breeding adult birds over 10 years.
In the 2015 nesting season, Vandenberg logged 309 breeding adults, she said, noting the base has reached its recovery goal one time in 2004.
The 2016 nesting season follows a successful year for the birds in 2015, which saw 60 percent of the nests successfully hatch.
In addition to predators, wind, tides and abandonment also led to unsuccessful nests in 2015.
“For the most part our hatch rate was really good in 2015,” she said, adding the base had 257 nests that hatched.
“It is the highest number of nests that we’ve ever had hatch,” she said.
One-half of the chicks that hatched went on to fledge, or survive to take flight, a key step to boosting the breeding population.
“This is what gets more birds into the breeding population. This is what we want to see, we want to see more chicks fledging every year so we can get that nesting number up the next year.”
Completion of the dune restoration at Surf Beach led to 38 snowy plover nests in the restored areas in 2014 and 27 nests in 2015, instead of zero in those areas before the work.
Restoration work at Wall Beach resulted in 38 nests established in those areas in 2015, Kaisersatt said.
“The plovers are certainly responding to these areas,” she said.
“That benefits the species, that helps us reach our recovery goal and that allows us to get to less restrictions quicker.”
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.