Thanks for the report. Very good news, for all concerned it sounds like. The UBNA and the Arboretum are safe for all the early nesters and migrants, and Windermere still gets to toss their party. Win/win solutions like this need to come about more often.

Brett A. Wolfe
Seattle, WA
m_lincolnii at yahoo.com

Marc Hoffman <tweeters at dartfrogmedia.com> wrote:
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
mailto:tweeters at dartfrogmedia.com
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