Letter to the Editor: Spirit Eagle Decries Wetland Destruction

— from Spirit Eagle —

The Eastsound Sub Area Plan (ESAP) has facilitated destruction of the Wetland/Swale by allowing uses incompatible with a Category 3 Wetland. Developers who, without Permits have taken trees and undergrowth that was necessary for the health of the Wetland in order to put houses and other buildings there have been neither fined nor stopped! Just “a slap on the wrist” for being naughty boys and they continued to build houses in the Wetland.

So much for protection of probably the largest and most important Wetland in Eastsound
which extends all the way through the Airport to North Beach.

With this Revised ESAP It doesn’t seem to bother anyone that the waterfront will be literally crammed with apartments which I suspect will be used mainly by tourists. One designation allows for up to 40 apartments on one acre! (if parking could somehow be made available) I’m sure they’ll get around that “little problem”.

The stagnant Pond on the Mount Property has done nothing to enhance the health of the Wetland. In fact, it was touted as Best Available Science at the time. By whose definition? It was modeled from a Study in New England which has Rain in the Summer and a completely different Climate. In fact the Scientist who created this model 20 years ago has disavowed it and now says it is better to leave the trees and to keep the under story.

What will happen with more impervious surfaces in our “Streetscape” Plan that will prevent the trapping of toxins in the Wetlands? What is being dumped into our waters? I’d like to see the run-off analysis. Is that available to the Public?

Further north in the Wetland, a business went in and cut trees illegally and again, as violators of the law do, got a slap on the wrist, didn’t get fined, continued to build and continued to violate the Codes. We need Code Enforcement officers immediately! At least three!

A healthy Wetland has an abundance of Wildlife. They have no voice in meetings that decide their fate. The Deer, Bats (who eat mosquitoes), Squirrels and Owls, Hawks, Eagles and Racoons are gone. Frogs who used to sing their song of life…gone!

This Fall, I saw only one or two Migrating Bird Species in the Wetlands (Migrating birds are protected under the International Migratory Bird Treaty to which the United States is a Signatory.) Just a few years ago, the joy of watching flocks of many species alight there was part of what made life bearable in Citified Eastsound!

In looking at the UGA Maps, the planned Buildout is phenomenal with more to come! Consider that Light Industrial will intensify in the hills to the West. During the Winter when rainwater gushes like a river in ditches alongside the roads which it does now, the pollutants will flow along the road on Lovers Lane and straight into the Bay without depositing its’ toxins in the Wetland that is dammed up at Lavender Hollow on Enchanted Forest Road (with a too small Outflow pipe). Nothing has been done about this.

The water used to flow into the Wetland. Further South, the Wetland has been compromised of course! The increasingly unfiltered pollutants will cause a decline in species in Eastsound Bay ie: Herring Spawning Grounds, Eel Grass and much more! If the County continues to allow these code violators to eat into the Wetlands, Life in the Bay will die. Tourists don’t come here to look at dead fish, polluted waters and sick wildlife with Buildings everywhere.

Years ago, when I worked with Dorothy Austin when she was attempting to educate the citizens regarding the disastrous results that would ensue if Eastsound was designated an Urban Growth Area, her Lawyer, an Environmental Attorney, told the people at a large meeting that if they voted for the UGA, Build Out (every Parcel must be developed) would be Required under the Growth Management Act! This you will see, is manifesting Now! With a vengeance! Dorothy Austin was vilified for telling the Truth!

I urge you Not to approve the revised ESAP. Instead, take as your guide in wisdom the Greek Physician, Hippocrates: “First Do No Harm”!