surferman
01-20-2010, 07:30 PM
As Coast Guard shuts down Loran, site of Cape facility eyed for piping plover nesting
By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 | 1 comment (http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_a510fc04-0568-11df-827f-001cc4c03286.html#user-comment-area)
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/pressofatlanticcity.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/6/b4/f34/6b4f34fe-0568-11df-bf47-001cc4c03286.preview-300.jpg?_dc=1263953194 (http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_a510fc04-0568-11df-827f-001cc4c03286.html?mode=image&photo=0)Engineering Technician 2nd Class David Myers shows the signature Loran signal pulse that is send out from the station. The U.S. Coast Guard Loran Station, located at the southern end of Five Mile Island in Lower Township, will officially close Feb. 8. The Loran station has been aiding marine and aviation navigation since WWII.
Photo by: Dale Gerhard
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LOWER TOWNSHIP — The U.S. Coast Guard’s Loran radio navigation center here has helped mariners and aviators navigate safely for more than six decades. It may soon help breed piping plovers.
That’s the hope of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which wants to acquire 520 coastal acres here at the southern tip of Two-Mile Beach, where the U.S. Coast Guard has operated its Loran network since 1947.
The Wildlife Service took over 550 acres of the base in 1999 and used it to create the Two-Mile Beach Unit of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge.
With the Coast Guard getting ready to scuttle its Loran system under a budgetary move announced by President Barack Obama’s administration last year, the base will close for good sometime this year. The service is considering doubling the size of the refuge, as the law allows another federal agency to have first crack at unused land.
“We’ve made our interest known. It’s the only closed beach and only protection for nesting shorebirds for 40 miles from Cape May to Atlantic City. It’s extremely important to them,” said Howard Schlegel, manager of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge.
Schlegel said nests of the endangered piping plover already have been spotted on the Coast Guard property and it is a key spot for many other shorebirds.
Such habitat also is important for migrating songbirds who suffer something ornithologists have dubbed “the coastal effect.” Songbirds migrating between the tropics and Canada often get blown out to sea. Those that make it back to shore have a better chance of survival if some wild habitat is nestled between the condominiums and the gravel yards along the highly developed shoreline.
What comes next
The General Services Administration will decide what to do with the site. In 1998, it received more than 50 requests when the Coast Guard vacated half the property, including one from the township to create a fire station.
Cmdr. Gary M. Thomas, who will serve as the last commanding officer of the Loran Support Unit, said the bill terminating the program allows the Coast Guard to at least recover the costs of decommissioning it. After that, other federal agencies are offered the property at no charge. If there is no interest, then state and local governments get a chance, Thomas said.
If the Wildlife Service gets the property, Schlegel said, the beach would be closed from April 1 to Sept. 30 for the piping plovers, but would have public access for the rest of the site. The Two-Mile Beach Unit has a parking lot, visitor contact center, maintenance building and walkways that are accessible to the disabled, and there are plans to build a wildlife viewing platform, Schlegel said.
The service probably would want to demolish the buildings that are part of the Loran Support Unit. The 625-foot-high Loran antenna, one of the tallest objects on the southern New Jersey coast, and one decorated by the Coast Guard personnel at Christmas, also may go, because it could pose a threat to migrating birds, Schlegel said.
Along with another 40 acres the service acquired in 2004 near Middle Thorofare Bridge, it would give the service well more than 1,000 acres that could revert to a coastal maritime forest.
“This would be really adding to what we’ve been trying to do at Two-Mile Beach and certainly a positive for the shorebirds,” Schlegel said.
End of an era
Thomas’ 24-year Coast Guard career has included two stints commanding the Loran unit. Thomas is a little sad about the demise of Loran, which is giving way to satellite GPS systems. The Coast Guard is expected save about $36 million per year.
Thomas said personnel who first turned on the signal more than six decades ago will be invited Feb. 8 to turn it off. The Loran system sends out radio signals that vessels and ships use to fix exact positions over water using a geometric triangulation system.
“It’s sad for me from a historical position. I see it as a passing of time when a bunch of guardians stood watch from Pacific islands to the far ends of Alaska,” Thomas said.
The first system, Loran A, helped win World War II by guiding ships and aircraft. Planes could carry more bombs and less fuel with an accurate guidance system. The planes that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan used it.
“It’s considered one of the top 10 technologies of World War II,” Thomas said.
After the war, Loran C was used by commercial aviation, shipping, the fishing industry and many other interests. There is talk of using a more advanced eLoran system as a GPS backup, but nothing has been decided.
The base here will be the last one to shut down, as it oversaw 24 smaller U.S. Loran stations — many in remote, desolate areas such as a small atoll at the far end of the Hawaiian island chain.
Thomas said the U.S. stations would all shut down by Feb. 19, and within three months, five in Canada would close.
The base opened several decades after Turtle Gut Inlet was filled in, connecting Two-Mile Beach to the Wildwoods, and at one point it had about 250 workers. Since GPS began in 1993, the base has shrunk. Thomas said there are only 45 workers now. The 39 Coast Guard workers will be transferred, but six civilian jobs will be lost.
The base opened on a remote beach used for cattle grazing in the 18th century, a lifesaving station in the 19th century and a “tent city” of sorts in the 20th century. Those seeking a cheap shore vacation came here and stayed in tents, swimming, fishing and camping.
Active and retired Coast Guard personnel still use the beach for recreation, but Schlegel warned that would change if the service acquires it.
“There are too many public beaches in the area in my mind to justify a specific set aside for Coast Guard personnel to use. Just to the north is a free beach,” Schlegel said.
Thomas said he already has received inquires from Coast Guard personnel about the use of the beach. He also noted the Coast Guard allowed public access to anglers fishing off the jetty at Cold Spring Inlet.
Contact Richard Degener:
609-463-6711
http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_a510fc04-0568-11df-827f-001cc4c03286.html
By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 | 1 comment (http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_a510fc04-0568-11df-827f-001cc4c03286.html#user-comment-area)
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/pressofatlanticcity.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/6/b4/f34/6b4f34fe-0568-11df-bf47-001cc4c03286.preview-300.jpg?_dc=1263953194 (http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_a510fc04-0568-11df-827f-001cc4c03286.html?mode=image&photo=0)Engineering Technician 2nd Class David Myers shows the signature Loran signal pulse that is send out from the station. The U.S. Coast Guard Loran Station, located at the southern end of Five Mile Island in Lower Township, will officially close Feb. 8. The Loran station has been aiding marine and aviation navigation since WWII.
Photo by: Dale Gerhard
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LOWER TOWNSHIP — The U.S. Coast Guard’s Loran radio navigation center here has helped mariners and aviators navigate safely for more than six decades. It may soon help breed piping plovers.
That’s the hope of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which wants to acquire 520 coastal acres here at the southern tip of Two-Mile Beach, where the U.S. Coast Guard has operated its Loran network since 1947.
The Wildlife Service took over 550 acres of the base in 1999 and used it to create the Two-Mile Beach Unit of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge.
With the Coast Guard getting ready to scuttle its Loran system under a budgetary move announced by President Barack Obama’s administration last year, the base will close for good sometime this year. The service is considering doubling the size of the refuge, as the law allows another federal agency to have first crack at unused land.
“We’ve made our interest known. It’s the only closed beach and only protection for nesting shorebirds for 40 miles from Cape May to Atlantic City. It’s extremely important to them,” said Howard Schlegel, manager of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge.
Schlegel said nests of the endangered piping plover already have been spotted on the Coast Guard property and it is a key spot for many other shorebirds.
Such habitat also is important for migrating songbirds who suffer something ornithologists have dubbed “the coastal effect.” Songbirds migrating between the tropics and Canada often get blown out to sea. Those that make it back to shore have a better chance of survival if some wild habitat is nestled between the condominiums and the gravel yards along the highly developed shoreline.
What comes next
The General Services Administration will decide what to do with the site. In 1998, it received more than 50 requests when the Coast Guard vacated half the property, including one from the township to create a fire station.
Cmdr. Gary M. Thomas, who will serve as the last commanding officer of the Loran Support Unit, said the bill terminating the program allows the Coast Guard to at least recover the costs of decommissioning it. After that, other federal agencies are offered the property at no charge. If there is no interest, then state and local governments get a chance, Thomas said.
If the Wildlife Service gets the property, Schlegel said, the beach would be closed from April 1 to Sept. 30 for the piping plovers, but would have public access for the rest of the site. The Two-Mile Beach Unit has a parking lot, visitor contact center, maintenance building and walkways that are accessible to the disabled, and there are plans to build a wildlife viewing platform, Schlegel said.
The service probably would want to demolish the buildings that are part of the Loran Support Unit. The 625-foot-high Loran antenna, one of the tallest objects on the southern New Jersey coast, and one decorated by the Coast Guard personnel at Christmas, also may go, because it could pose a threat to migrating birds, Schlegel said.
Along with another 40 acres the service acquired in 2004 near Middle Thorofare Bridge, it would give the service well more than 1,000 acres that could revert to a coastal maritime forest.
“This would be really adding to what we’ve been trying to do at Two-Mile Beach and certainly a positive for the shorebirds,” Schlegel said.
End of an era
Thomas’ 24-year Coast Guard career has included two stints commanding the Loran unit. Thomas is a little sad about the demise of Loran, which is giving way to satellite GPS systems. The Coast Guard is expected save about $36 million per year.
Thomas said personnel who first turned on the signal more than six decades ago will be invited Feb. 8 to turn it off. The Loran system sends out radio signals that vessels and ships use to fix exact positions over water using a geometric triangulation system.
“It’s sad for me from a historical position. I see it as a passing of time when a bunch of guardians stood watch from Pacific islands to the far ends of Alaska,” Thomas said.
The first system, Loran A, helped win World War II by guiding ships and aircraft. Planes could carry more bombs and less fuel with an accurate guidance system. The planes that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan used it.
“It’s considered one of the top 10 technologies of World War II,” Thomas said.
After the war, Loran C was used by commercial aviation, shipping, the fishing industry and many other interests. There is talk of using a more advanced eLoran system as a GPS backup, but nothing has been decided.
The base here will be the last one to shut down, as it oversaw 24 smaller U.S. Loran stations — many in remote, desolate areas such as a small atoll at the far end of the Hawaiian island chain.
Thomas said the U.S. stations would all shut down by Feb. 19, and within three months, five in Canada would close.
The base opened several decades after Turtle Gut Inlet was filled in, connecting Two-Mile Beach to the Wildwoods, and at one point it had about 250 workers. Since GPS began in 1993, the base has shrunk. Thomas said there are only 45 workers now. The 39 Coast Guard workers will be transferred, but six civilian jobs will be lost.
The base opened on a remote beach used for cattle grazing in the 18th century, a lifesaving station in the 19th century and a “tent city” of sorts in the 20th century. Those seeking a cheap shore vacation came here and stayed in tents, swimming, fishing and camping.
Active and retired Coast Guard personnel still use the beach for recreation, but Schlegel warned that would change if the service acquires it.
“There are too many public beaches in the area in my mind to justify a specific set aside for Coast Guard personnel to use. Just to the north is a free beach,” Schlegel said.
Thomas said he already has received inquires from Coast Guard personnel about the use of the beach. He also noted the Coast Guard allowed public access to anglers fishing off the jetty at Cold Spring Inlet.
Contact Richard Degener:
609-463-6711
http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_a510fc04-0568-11df-827f-001cc4c03286.html