The Seattle Special Events Committee held its emergency meeting this
morning from 10 to noon to reconsider the granting of a permit for
Windermere to discharge fireworks this Friday night. Present were
most of the committee, representatives from Windermere, and about
fifteen others, including several Tweeters contributors.

It was apparent from the start that committee chair Virginia Swanson
was already feeling negligent in not reviewing the environmental
impact of the fireworks before the initial/conditional permit was
approved. Windermere was also very up front about their naivite and
their readiness to revise plans to reduce the impact on area birds,
although clearly they hoped the show would go on in some form. They
offered to move the fireworks barge considerably further into the
lake, away from the Fill and Arboretum.

The upshot was that Windermere's proposal was modified by the
committee, then approved unanimously, to move the barge even farther
out, to the perimeter of that area over which the city has jurisdiction.

Although the committee was unable to present any DFW speakers (all of
them being out in the field this week), Virginia Swanson gave a
synopsis of opinions by several DFW and other area scientists, all of
it pretty much pointing to the deleterious effects of fireworks on
nesting and migrating birds. It was also emphasized that there is no
hardcore scientific data on the subject, but the prevailing opinion
is to err on the side of protecting the bird populations from
disruptions this time of year. Virginia also tried to give a synopsis
of some of the emails she had received on the topic, and all emails
were printed and distributed to the committee members at the start of
the meeting.

There was about 45 minutes available for public comment before the
decision vote was taken. Six people offered brief testimony,
including Connie Sidles, Susan Marten, Colleen O'Conner, Sheila
Clooney, Ben Shroeder, Suzanne Kromm, and myself (my apologies for
any misspellings -- please let me know if I botched your name). I
thought all the speakers came off as poised, well-informed, and
convincing. Opinions ranged from moving the fireworks farther from
nesting birds, to cancelling the display altogether and relocating it
to Lake Union or elsewhere if it were to be revisited in future
years. There was much talk about bird behavior (nesting and
migrating), Federal regulations about not disturbing eagle nesting
sites, and the need to adhere to SEPA (State Environmental Policy
Act) regulations in the future so as not to need this sort of
emergency meeting again.

A high point for me was testimony by Sheila Clooney, Kirkland's
Special Projects Coordinator and chair of its Special Events
Committee. She detailed how Kirkland's fireworks at Yarrow Bay last
year resulted in a knock on the door by the Feds, a very painful and
frightening consequence of disturbing eagles into leaving the nest.
She cautioned that the pain the Seattle committee was now facing was
nothing compared to what she and the City of Kirkland had gone
through last year.

Although some may have left the meeting feeling that the outcome was
too much a compromise, it seems to me -- and others, I know -- that
as negligent as the initial planning of the fireworks may have been,
the responsible parties got a strong education and seem sincere in
their commitment to do things differently from here on out.

Considering it was only a week ago that this proposed event came to
light, I think this was a real successful and I'm especially grateful
to Susan Marten for initiating the review process through her prompt
outspokenness.

Marc Hoffman
Kirkland, WA
http://www.dartfrogmedia.com
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