A Childrens' Beach and Raptor Nests

One of the pleasures of having adult children living in other parts of the country is the excuse to travel. My oldest daughter and son-in-law live in San Diego where we visited them recently. Since they live in San Diego they do get a few visitors and one of her favorite places to take them is the Seal Beach in La Jolla. Along with the beach, she has always loved animals.

It seems that the city fathers of La Jolla decided to build a breakwater some years ago. Their purpose was to create a sheltered beach near the very popular beach that fronts La Jolla. The sheltered beach would create a nice sandy beach and calm sea pool for young children close beside the natural beach where their parents would be. Very family friendly and Californian in its conception.

But there were unanticipated problems. The seals took over. No children there now, just seals and some daring adults. It seems seals can be pretty territorial, as the occasional human who trespasses is in danger of being bitten. Picture the middle of a busy beach in front of an upscale Southern California city, with a breakwater sheltered beach that supports a large and thriving population of seals and other wildlife. Occasionally the sea lions move in and chase the seals away, but the sea lions really prefer the rocks further down the coast. The day I was there, the seals were surrounded by innumerable tourists gawking at them, snapping their pictures. An elderly gentlemen disturbed their ease and chanced bite marks on his ankles by walking among them on his way to go snorkling. Two scuba divers followed the old guy, again chancing the seals displeasure.

Not only are the seals there, but birds and more birds. The ubiquitous sea gulls are there of course. But there are pelicans and many other species, oblivious to the humans that surround them. In fact, two sea gulls were within four feet of me when they decided to participate in the Circle of Life. In all it was a picturesque morning. Saturday morning at the Southern California beach. Human beings, animals and birds crowded together on prime beach front. A beautiful picture of live and let live, as well as witness to the beginning of new life.

And then I came home. One of our projects is just finishing. The project was a pipeline through the Wyoming prairie and it suffered major budget and schedule problems due to wildlife restrictions. Productivity issues associated with wildlife restrictions cost not thousands of dollars but millions. Bear in mind that the construction contractor was on a construction corridor 100 feet wide surrounded by trackless prairie for upwards of 100 miles in every direction. It seems that animals and birds in Wyoming are much much more sensitive than they are in Southern California. So much for the image of the prairie and its rugged nature.

At the risk of belaboring the point, there is a raptor mating pair that nests every summer within 100 yards of my house; in suburban Denver with constant traffic on busy streets within a few hundred feet. There is a family of coyotes, as well as foxes, that live within the same general area. In the early morning, an occasional deer can be seen trotting along the creek. Cottontails swarm everywhere.

And yet on a pipeline right of way, the sight of a raptor nest brings an immediate halt for at least 1/2 a mile. In large parts of the West, construction is not allowed for months on end because it will disturb the deer or elk. Sometimes the nature of the cultural and business environment in which we operate seems to me surreal.

I think every responsible person wants to exercise stewardship in the way we live in our physical world. There is no question that we have sometimes been shortsighted in the way we use the physical world in the past. Yet the scene of the California beach calls the rituals that we perpetuate in the wilds of Wyoming to account. There is much science and study validating the need for those rituals. But who pays the scientists who study the wildlife on Wyoming range? Would those scientists have a job if they found no need for the wildlife restrictions in which we engage on that range? They are hammers in search of nails. Like all other hammers, they find them everywhere they look.

Is our society arrogant? Do we suffer from what the greeks called hubris? Do we believe that whatever burden we place on the productive members of our society is ok? If we ask our businessmen to dig holes and then fill them in, that burden will have no harmful effect?

China and India rise in the east, awakened giants flexing their new muscles. Russia returns to the arena eager to regain its pride. Everywhere, new and old competitors build for a new future and seek their place in the sun. Accustomed to our economic strength, we debate how many angels can dance on the heads of pins.