Virgin-Islands-On-Line's Coconut Telegraph

V.I. National Park removed from endangered listSome improvement is seen but some problems still exist, national conservation group says

From the VI Daily News:

By JOY BLACKBURN
Thursday, January 15th 2004

A national conservation association has removed the Virgin Islands National Park from its annual list of the 10 most endangered national parks, which was released Wednesday.

However, a spokeswoman for the group said many of the issues that landed the park on the list last year still exist.

"Overfishing and destruction to coral reefs is a major problem, along with development pressure," said Mary Munson, a regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. "The problems are still there and just as serious, but it fell from the list because other parks became more endangered. Also, it improved slightly because the interim regulations for the national monument are being finalized."

V.I. National Park Superintendent Art Frederick called the park's removal from the list "good news."

"As superintendent, I am very excited," Frederick said.

The National Parks Conservation Association, which has hundreds of thousands of members, has become a powerful lobbying group since it was established in 1919 to protect and enhance the national park system. This is the sixth year the group has put out the 10 most endangered national parks list.

The V.I. National Park made its first appearance on the list in 2003.

Interim regulations limiting fishing in the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, which is managed by the park, are being implemented, said Rafe Boulon, chief of resource management for the V.I. National Park.

The national monument - 12,000 acres of water, most of it south of St. John - was created in January 2001.

The new regulations state that there will be no fishing in the monument with two exceptions: bait fishing with a cast net within Hurricane Hole and fishing by hand line for hardnose - also called blue runner - in an area south of St. John, Boulon said.

"Both of those types of fisheries are not directly linked to coral reefs," Boulon said. "We're trying to enable traditional uses to continue but in a fashion that doesn't damage any of the resources."

Although the fishing restrictions apply to the monument and not to the national park itself, Munson said the Conservation Association hopes to see the fish population in nearby areas - including the national park - rebound with the increased regulation.

"Conditions have not necessarily improved in the Virgin Islands. The resources are still being hammered," Munson said. "But we base this decision on hope, as well. At least there are more protections being put on some of these resources."

Encroaching development, which was cited when the park was put on the list last year, remains a concern, Munson said.

For example, the 376-acre Maho Bay Estate in the heart of the park is divided into 11 shares, of which the park owns three. The remaining eight shares are owned by eight different parties.

The Conservation Association has urged the federal government to purchase the parcels outright or to see that the land is protected from development in some other way. However, that issue has not yet been resolved, Boulon said.

Frederick said that other steps had been taken within the park to protect coral, including the elimination of random anchoring throughout the park. Moorings are used to give people a place to tie their boats instead of dropping an anchor, which can damage coral and sea grass.

Boulon said moorings had recently been installed in the national monument.

The parks on the National Parks Conservation Association's 10 most endangered list, in alphabetical order, are Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, Biscayne National Park in Florida, Everglades National Park in Florida, Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, Joshua Tree National Park in California, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program in 26 states and Washington, D.C., Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska and Yellowstone National Park in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Air pollution, years of inadequate funding and damaging policies were among the problems the Conservation Association identified that endanger the parks.

The Buck Island Reef National Monument, which was expanded when the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument was created, did not appear on the list.

In May, interim regulations prohibiting extractive use - removing anything at all, living or nonliving, from the monument area - were put into place, said Joel Tutein, National Park superintendent on St. Croix.

Posted by afinta at January 16, 2004 02:44 PM