County
Commissioners were surprised to hear this week that nearly 200 homes on St.
George Island are out of compliance with the county’s sea turtle lighting
ordinance.
The
ordinance was created in the late 90’s to protect nesting sea turtles and their
hatchlings from man-made light.
A recent
letter from the US Fish and Wildlife Service letter said during a survey 2
years ago they found over 130 homes out of compliance with the County Ordinance
and since then 50 more have been found in the Plantation.
County
Extension Director Eric Lovestrand said many of the homes just need to change the
type of outdoor light bulbs they use to come back into compliance – though there
are a few that will need to deal with their indoor lighting too.
County
Administrator Alan Pierce added that some of the homes have fallen out of
compliance because of changes in the configuration of the beaches, especially
when dunes and vegetation which once blocked lights from the beach are washed away
during storms.
The county was awarded a
grant to help bring homes into compliance with the lighting ordinance.
The “Restoring the Night Sky” grant which began in
May provides money to help educate people about and enforce Franklin County’s
sea turtle lighting ordinance.
The grant could be extended for an additional three
years if the county does a good job this year.
http://live.oysterradio.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment