by Glynn Wilson
Editor and Publisher

If Regina Nummy, the director of Roebuck-Hawkins Park, has not already resigned her position — for her ignorant order telling Birmingham city workers to illegally excavate wetlands without a permit and to remove a dam on a Village Creek spring pool — she should be fired immediately.

Glynn Wilson

A yellow-crowned night heron feeding on the section of Village Creek that intersects the Roebuck Golf Course, just down stream from the destroyed dam.

It may take the discovery phase of a lawsuit and depositions to find out who came up with the dimwitted idea to remove the dam in the first place, as well as how the order was carried out, since city officials have now clammed up and are not talking in expectation of a lawsuit.

What is clear is that what Ms. Nummy told The Birmingham News about the need to remove the dam to prevent damage to the tennis courts due to flooding is just a lie. What is not clear is why she would concoct such a story. But ignorance is no defense in a court of law.

What we know is this.

Last Friday, Ms. Nummy somehow obtained a work order for a crane operator to drive into a protected wetland that was home to the largest population of endangered watercress darters on the planet. Without a federal or state permit or permission of any kind, the heavy equipment operator removed a beaver dam built on top of a small man-made dam that helped the Roebuck Springs pool hold water in part of Village Creek.

Over the weekend, most of the water ran out of the pond downstream through a drainage pipe leading under the Roebuck tennis courts. The shock of all the water rushing out of the pool forced at least 1,000 darters, most likely way more than that, to hide in the grass, where they died of suffocation.

There is no doubt that this constitutes a blatant violation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and the Locust Fork News-Journal is calling on the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alabama Department of Conservation to move with all deliberate speed both to restore the habitat and to hold the responsible parties legally accountable.

This story is not just about some little rare fish. The destruction of its habitat will no doubt have a ripple effect throughout the ecosystem and have a negative impact on bird populations as well.

In recent times this independent online news organization has focused more on national issues and crimes of the Bush administration, specifically on the Bush Justice Department’s political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, than local stories such as this. But we have extensive experience covering science and the environment going all the way back to the 1980s.

And this particular spot holds a special place in our hearts. It is a remarkable place to experience the wonders of nature in the very center of an urban area.

For the past four years, I have joined other wildlife photographers to keep a watchful eye on the special population of yellow-crowned night herons that nest in the area around the Roebuck Golf Course along Village Creek. We have taken hundreds of photographs of these beautiful creatures during that time frame.

And right now, in addition to being concerned about the endangered fish, we are also concerned that the destruction of this dam and the habitat for the fish will have a negative impact on the bird populations in the area.

In addition to the herons, there are often wood ducks feeding in the area as well as great egrets, kingfishers, red-shouldered hawks, great blue herons, and red-winged blackbirds.

In fact, my photograph of a red-winged blackbird on Village Creek just downstream from the destroyed dam was recently chosen for an educational poster showing the 50 most common bird species in Alabama. Of 50 pictures chosen, submitted by birders from all over the state, nine or 10 are mine.

You can see a picture of the poster and order free copies from this link on the Legacy Partners for Environmental Education Website.

We would also like to see the local television news shows and the local newspapers do more to get to the bottom of this environmental tragedy.

For the past three days in a row, The Birmingham News environmental reporter has published the same lie about the tennis courts flooding, apparently by taking information on the phone from the office and not actually visiting the site in person.

Any empirical observation by any lay person will show that the tennis courts have not flooded and have not been damaged by flooding. It is not enough for a news organization to take the word of a city official in a case like this. There is a responsibility to get off the phone, away from the e-mail, and out of the office to go look at the scene. Anything less is irresponsible journalism.