Glynn Wilson

A view of Village Creek in Roebuck Springs, Alabama, Sept. 13, 2010

by Glynn Wilson

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has still not concluded its negotiations with the city of Birmingham for a killing 11,760 watercress darters, an endangered species protected by the Endangered Species Act, and also for some 8,900 additional darters injured when a city park manager ordered a beaver dam removed on Village Creek in Roebuck Springs two years ago.

The federal agency, which could not be reached for comment today, is seeking a civil penalty totaling $2,975,000, but apparently some of the money will go toward planting trees and enhancing the habitat running through Roebuck Golf Course, which is showing progress, according to a recent visit to the area.

Part of the agreement calls for no mowing or use of pesticides or herbicides along the creek bank, and as you can see from the video above, the banks are now grown up with sea myrtle bushes, which will provide ground cover for nesting birds such as the native yellow-crowned night herons, and food for all manner of butterflies, including the migrating monarchs which travel through Birmingham on their way to Mexico every year in October.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources also has a claim against the city for $1,062,786.21 for the death of watercress darters, plus the deaths of more than two million individuals of a protected species of snail, and is contemplating a lawsuit against the city to collect that claim. No word on where that stands either, and no one with the city will comment due to the ongoing litigation.

The agency’s action stems from an incident on September 19, 2008, when a City maintenance crew removed a beaver dam from the Roebuck Springs pool in Hawkins Park. The crew also breached an underlying earthen dam that formed the spring pool where more than 20,000 of the small endangered fish lived. Breaching the dam quickly drained the spring pool and stranded and killed thousands of watercress darters among a mass of drying aquatic plants.

“The massive fish kill resulted in the loss of more than half of the largest known population of this species,” Cynthia K. Dohner, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southeast regional director, said at the time.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

by Glynn Wilson

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a Notice of Violations to the City of Birmingham Thursday for killing 11,760 watercress darters, an endangered species protected by the Endangered Species Act, and also for injuries to some 8,900 additional darters killed when a city park manager ordered a beaver dam removed on Village Creek in Roebuck Springs.

The Service is seeking a civil penalty totaling $2,975,000.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources also has a claim against the City for $1,062,786.21 for the death of watercress darters, plus the deaths of more than two million individuals of a protected species of snail.

The ADCNR is contemplating a lawsuit against the City to collect that claim, according to a press release.

The Service’s action stems from an incident that happened September 19, 2008, when a City maintenance crew removed a beaver dam from the Roebuck Springs pool in Hawkins Park. The crew also breached an underlying earthen dam that formed the spring pool where more than 20,000 of the small endangered fish lived.

Breaching the dam quickly drained the spring pool and stranded and killed thousands of watercress darters among a mass of drying aquatic plants.

“The massive fish kill resulted in the loss of more than half of the largest known population of this species,” said Cynthia K. Dohner, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southeast regional director.

Watercress darters are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and are a trust resource protected by Alabama law. The only populations in the world are found in five spring pools and spring brooks in Jefferson County, Alabama, within the metropolitan area of Birmingham.

Read the rest of this entry »

Glynn Wilson

by Glynn Wilson

ROEBUCK SPRINGS, Ala. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not finalized a federal investigation into an endangered fish kill of 11,000 endangered watercress daters by the city of Birmingham, but the agency now under a new president who values science more than his predecessor has approved the city’s immediate plan to control the water flow and save what population is left.

Birmingham workers destroyed a beaver dam last September and nearly drained the entire spring pool near the headwaters of Roebuck Springs, which feeds Village Creek and the Black Warrior River watershed.

We broke the story the other day with photos of the approved structure, which we now know was installed March 18. It is a modified manhole culvert, souped-up to control the water flow to keep a healthy amount of water in the pond, and to drain before a 100-year flood comes along and potentially over tops the tennis courts.

In retrospect, the tennis courts should not be there so close to this valuable waterway, since for a stretch the creek is a mere drainage pipe running under the asphalt. The colorful watercress darter only lives in four places in the world, all of them in Jefferson County, Alabama, and they are listed as an endangered species under the law.

Rob Tawes, deputy field supervisor for the agency, confirmed Thursday that it was a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved design, submitted by the city, with a Corps of Engineers permit.

“It was the result of our legal negotiations with the city,” he said in a phone interview.

The purpose is to bring the level of the spring pool back up.

“Now is the spawning season for the darters,” he said.

The level now is only 10 to 12 inches. The goal is to get it up another five inches or so.

Unlike the previous structure, a natural beaver dam, he said, “this one can’t be torn down by a backhoe, at least not as easily.”

It was designed by the city, reviewed by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, he said, and has flash board risers in the side to control the water elevation. The black pipe connected to the old drainage pipe is a beaver drain, with holes to allow rushing water through and foil the ravenous rodents, which are sensitive to the sound and moving water.

The 2x4s are part of a temporary structure holding concrete in place and will be removed, another Fish and Wildlife public relations spokesperson confirmed in a return call.

As for the status on the darter, Tawes said: “We have a long way to go to before the habitat gets back to the way it was.”

The agency doesn’t yet know how well the remaining population is doing, but Tawes said they are sure at least some survived and are still there.

The agency also used traps and removed most of the invasive species of crawfish out of the pond, and continues to have an ongoing and active interest in the environmental health of the area.

As for legal penalties, one source with the city says the state may propose fines of up to $1 million, but the federal agency is still finalizing it’s investigation and could do more.

“At this point, that’s all under discussion,” he said. “We are in discussions with them over a lot more restoration than you see out there.”

Related Links:
At Least 1,000 Endangered Watercress Darters Killed: Illegal Dam Removal in Roebuck Springs Under Investigation
Editorial

Glynn Wilson

This is a shot of the beaver dam at Roebuck Springs, the headwaters of Village Creek, in East Birmingham, Alabama, in early 2008.

B’ham moron engineering on display…

by Glynn Wilson

That headline is written with no small measure of sardonicism. I could report that seeing the scene below Thursday made me so sick I didn’t know what to say. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Glynn Wilson

This is a shot of the beaver dam at Roebuck Springs, the headwaters of Village Creek, in East Birmingham, Alabama, in early 2008.

In September, 2008, I was sick to report this story.

At Least 1,000 Endangered Watercress Darters Killed: Illegal Dam Removal in Roebuck Springs Under Investigation

Then, after we investigated the case and wrote this editorial demanding major legal action, we heard nothing else out of the Bush Fish and Wildlife Service or the city.

The other day, we did a routine check of the scene, and to our chagrin and outrage, this is what we found.

Glynn Wilson

A concrete manhole culvert stuck sideways where the beaver dam used to be, with an ugly plastic pipe rammed into the drainage area under the tennis courts, and some unbelievably awful carpentry holding the pipe in with 2x4s, then concreted in place.

Glynn Wilson

This is a close look at what happens when rainfall raises the water level high enough for it to drain into the side. No endangered watercress darters visible anywhere near this. In fact, we didn’t see much in the way of any fish or bird life in this pond valuable to the area’s eco-system. The yellow-crowned night herons are not back there this year, at least not yet. They fed on the fish and the crayfish, and most of the invasive species of crayfish have now been removed.

The colorful fish only lives in four or five places in the world, all of them right here in Jefferson County, Alabama. And now many of them are gone, upwards of 10,000, and their habitat looks even more like part of a city’s drainage system than a natural spring, feeding a tributary of the Locust Fork and Black Warrior River.

To learn more, here’s one history in BhamWiki.com.

We’ve already put out the call for action in this case, but if you know anymore to call and raise hell with, do it. I am ashamed to say my native city is run by complete morons. I have honestly not heard one single good idea out of anyone since I moved back a few years ago after living all over the place.

This is absolutely disgusting. Someone should be forced to pay for this crime against nature. Heads need to roll. Fines should be levied.

It’s now time for the Obama Fish and Wildlife Service to assert itself here. Most of the policies of the Bush EPA have been obliterated. When will we begin to see those changes at Fish and Wildlife, at Justice, and for that matter at the FCC? We’ve got some major issues to take on there over the next four years too.

Bring on the good change, faster than the bad change. I mean bring it on…

Kenny Walters

A couple of blue birds have adopted this cedar house in Roebuck Springs, Alabama. Sorry to brag, but it was a creation of Yellow Hammer Studios, a partner company, and was just placed in this yard last year. In other words, it worked the first nesting season. Our designs have improved since then, so if you want a bird house guaranteed to attract birds, get in touch…

I just happened to be on the scene at the Roebuck Springs fish kill taking photos myself when David Whiteside showed up to shoot this video for MTV. He ended up quoting me in the end.

We are still gathering more information and waiting on more from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigation and the Corps of Engineers on the wetlands-destruction portion of the crime scene. Check back soon and help us spread the word. If you want to be kept up to date on this issue or anything we are covering, simply send an e-mail message to fast2write@charter.net and ask to be added to the LocustFork-L mailing list.

To read all about it and see more photos, check out our archives on this story.

Related Coverage (most recent first):

Formal Investigation Launched into Roebuck Fish Kill

Roebuck Springs Dam Update

Roebuck Springs Fish Kill Update

Editorial: Major Price Should Be Paid for Fish Kill

Major Lawsuit, Penalties Expected in Roebuck Fish Kill

At Least 1,000 Endangered Watercress Darters Killed

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.

Illegal Dam Removal in Roebuck Springs Under Investigation

Glynn Wilson

The scene of destruction at Roebuck Springs on Village Creek, where at least 1,000 endangered fish were killed by the illegal removal of a dam.

by Glynn Wilson

ROEBUCK SPRINGS, Ala., Sept. 23 — Ignorance kills.

Regina Nummy, the director of Roebuck-Hawkins Park, apparently took it upon herself to authorize a crane operator (not a backhoe as previously reported) to dig its way into a protected pond on Village Creek last Friday and destroy a dam, without contacting federal or state officials for a permit or permission of any kind. The incident appears to be a clear violation of the federal Endangered Species Act, resulting in the death of at least 1,000 endangered watercress darters.

On the crime scene behind the tennis courts in East Birmingham Tuesday, along with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigator and two Alabama Department of Conservation officers, attorney Mark Martin of the Black Warrior Riverkeeper environmental group indicated that whoever authorized the destruction of the dam should be prosecuted.

Getting rid of the dam was a “significant and dangerous draw-down” of the water level that clearly killed the fish, he said. “It looks like a criminal act to me. I think it should be prosecuted.”

A family of beavers built a dam last summer on top of a man-made rip-rap berm as part of the storm runoff drainage system designed for the development, creating a small waterfall which led to a drainage pipe. From there Village Creek cuts through Roebuck Golf Course on its way southwest. Both the natural and artificial barriers were clearly removed with heavy equipment judging by tracks in the stinking mud left behind.

Without knowing what they were doing, the workers who destroyed the dam killed at least a thousand endangered watercress darters and thousands of snails important to science and the ecosystem.

But the decision resulted in a vibrant creek and pond of about 50 yards wide and 100 yards long, leading to an old grist mill and water tower by the old boys reform school, being reduced to a trickle and a puddle by Monday, with dead fish and snails stranded in the mud and grass.

A federal wildlife biologist and two state biologists were surveying the scene on Tuesday, taking measurements and gathering samples of dead species. The feds focused on the endangered darters, while the state officials collected snails.

Rob Tawes, supervisor of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Daphne Field Office, and the federal investigator on the scene, told me Tuesday the agency is seriously looking into the fish kill.

“We’re in fact-finding mode. It’s something that we’re extremely concerned about,” Tawes said. The agent on the scene declined to be identified or interviewed, but said the Atlanta field office would be putting out a statement soon.

Glynn Wilson

Thomas Tarpley and Michael Buntin with the Alabama Department of Conservation examine dead snails in the mud left behind from the illegal dam removal.

Michael Buntin, an investigator with the state Conservation Department, said the site is an important place where endangered wildlife can survive in the heart of an urban area. The creek and pond are surrounded by a golf course on one side, a road leading to a juvenile detention facility on another, and tennis courts, a community center, and a parking lot.

“It shows that nature can survive even in the middle of a city, until something like this goes wrong,” he said. “It looks like the draw-down of the water by the removal of the dam caused a serious impact to me. It’s certainly a surprise that this would be allowed to happen considering the importance of the site.”

The darters themselves, bright blue and spotted with red and orange when alive, and known to exist only in four locations around Birmingham, had fled into the grasses upon the shock of rushing water flowing out of the pond, dooming them to die when the grasses dried up. Scientists say they may have lived if they had gone with the flow downstream, but that is not their nature. When threatened, they hide in the grass.

“Watercress darters thrive in spring pools,” Bernie Kuhajda, manager of the fish collection at the University of Alabama, told a reporter for The Birmingham News. “This was the ideal habitat for them.”

Dr. Patrick O’Neill, Fishes of Alabama

A rare watercress darter, etheostoma nuchale, unique to Birmingham.

Ms. Nummy admitted to the News reporter that she authorized the dam’s removal without consulting federal authorities, claiming the pond has flooded the park’s tennis courts in the past.

Yet I play golf there regularly and periodically check in on the family of yellow-crowned night herons that nest nearby and have never seen the water rise over the tennis courts. And there is no evidence that “thousands of dollars” in damages have been repaired as a result of this alleged flooding, as she told the News.

Ms. Nummy, who was not in her office Tuesday and was reportedly in a meeting downtown for most of the day, told the News it “never crossed [her] mind” to consult the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or anyone else.

“I did not realize it was an issue until [a USFWS official] called a little while ago,” she reportedly said.

Don Lupo, of the Mayor’s Office of Citizens Assistance, told the News the city has been committed to protecting the darter, including posting signs along the spring below the pool notifying everyone of a ban on pesticides near the water. But on Monday, he was not aware that the dam removal had killed any darters.

“We have orders not to get into that creek and not to do that stuff,” he said.

Causing the death of fish listed as endangered species under federal law is punishable by fines of up to thousands of dollars for each one killed, which is one of the reasons the feds collected as many as possible. Criminal charges may also be brought against individuals involved in the fish kill.

It is not yet known who operated the equipment that destroyed the dam, whether it was city workers or contracted out to a private operator. But one investigator on the scene said that will be looked into as part of any national or local investigation.

Glynn Wilson

The same scene at Roebuck Springs on Village Creek earlier this year.

For more photos, check out this slide show. Look for the icon that makes it pop up in full screen mode for the best viewing. Use the mouse to roll over the text to read the full cutline.