Point Reyes bird habitat to benefit from oil spill fund
Mark Prado
Marin Independent Journal
04/06/2010
Point Reyes will be the beneficiary of $771,000 in restoration work to help improve bird habitat damaged by leaking oil from a freighter that sank near the Golden Gate Bridge almost six decades ago, officials announced Tuesday.
The restoration work was among seven projects that will receive a total $16.9 million from the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to address damage from once mysterious oil leaks that had killed more than 50,000 California seabirds since 1990.
The projects will help species affected by oil that leaked from the S.S. Jacob Luckenbach. The freighter sank in 1953 about 17 miles southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge, but was not identified as the source of the oil until 2002 after decades of leaking oil, especially during winter storms, causing massive injury to wildlife.
Along Marin's beaches and shores mysterious tar balls would roll onto shore, in particular along Point Reyes. Environmental groups, such as Ducks Unlimited, are expected to perform the restoration work.
"Tar balls would wash up on the beach, and we were never sure about where the oil was coming from," said Jennifer Boyce, a restoration ecologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We thought that maybe ships were emptying tanks on the way out of port."
As part of the restoration work, $400,000 will go toward corvid management at cattle ranches near Point Reyes National Seashore, where ravens are attracted to garbage.
"Ravens take a heavy toll of the eggs of common murres, one of the bird species damaged by Luckenbach oil," said Al Donner, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Reducing trash generally reduces the raven population in an area."
Another $371,000 will restore dune habitat where western snowy plovers nest.
"Plovers were among the bird species damaged by Luckenbach oil," Donner said.
Also, $972,000 will be spent to get rid of mice that damage nesting habitat for ashy storm-petrels on the Farallon Islands.
