Point Reyes Light - December 11, 2003

Phone company v. kingfishers

By Ivan Gale

The utility poles that haphazardly stick out of Bolinas Lagoon along Highway 1 may soon disappear after amusing motorists for more than half a century.

Their disappearance, however, may do more than advance the present destruction of West Marin’s sometimes whimsical cultural history. It will also eliminate the overhead wires which generations of kingfishers have used for perches.

SBC Communications is now digging trenches to install fiberoptic cables along Highway 1. The telephone cables are in response to increased demand from West Marin customers for voice, data, and high-speed Internet access, SBC has said.

When that work is completed, the telecommunications company is planning on removing the telephone poles and lines, which they say are deteriorating.

News of SBC’s plan to remove the poles surfaced at Friday’s meeting of the Bolinas Lagoon Technical Advisory Committee, which advises the county Open Space District, owner of the lagoon.

During the meeting, Skip Schwartz of Audubon Canyon Ranch said he in general supports removing manmade structures from the lagoon; however, he pointed out, kingfishers depend on the overhead lines as perches for spotting fish.

Schwartz pointed out that when Caltrans built Highway 1, it cut down the trees along the shore of the lagoon, thus eliminating the birds’ natural perches and forcing the kingfishers to adapt to using the overhead lines as perches for hunting and resting.

Schwartz on Tuesday told The Light he was asking wildlife biologists with expertise in kingfisher ecology to determine whether any substitute perches could be installed.

Though exact numbers are unavailable, Ed Ueber, manager of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, estimated the number of kingfishers at the lagoon has dwindled to less than 10.

Meanwhile, James Reyes, a planner for the Open Space District, said SBC is already using RV Point, a Caltrans roadcut near the Bolinas Wye, as a staging area and may have begun laying in its cables without the necessary permits.

He has reported the potential violation to county government and the Coastal Commission.

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