Help Stop Destruction of Key Birding Habitat at Assateague

Anyone who has birded the Assateague Island National Seashore knows that it is a fantastic place to bird year round. One of the great spots to bird is the Bayside Point area which is phenomenal during migration.

During spring and fall, tens of thousands of migrants are utilizing the woodland area between the parking area and camping loops and a recent plan by the National Park Service is threatening to destroy much of the woodland area for expanded parking.

Many of us feel that the opinion of the NPS Environmental Assessment is deeply flawed and that removing these woods would cause significant environmental impacts to migrant birds.

Assateague NWR (green arrow is the Bayside Point Woods)

The birding community CAN make a difference by voicing our concerns and sharing the data collected by citizen scientists and submitted to eBird. THE DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS IS WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 25th!

You can write your own response, but if you aren’t sure what to say, Mark Hoffman sent out a sample email that you can edit to your liking and submit. You can see Mark’s message on the original post at Nemesis Bird.

The full Environmental Assessment is available at:

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=207&projectID=45861&documentID=55288

The link for comments is:

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=55288

And letters can also be addressed to:

Deborah Darden, Superintendent
Assateague Island National Seashore
Attn: Bayside Picnic and South Ocean Beach Parking Areas Removal and Relocation EA
7206 National Seashore Lane Berlin, MD 21811

This message was originally posted on Nemesis Bird, with a big thanks to a heads up on the issue from George Armistead.