One line wisdom

Graeme Hall SwampDuring the most recent cycle of erosion at Sandy Beach, I refrained from asking: Who owns Worthing Beach now? It is about Graeme Hall Swamp and the adjacent marine environment that I write again.With regard to recent press, explicit self-interest is readily dismissed. Sometimes blatant statements are far more insidious because readily missed! Take the Graeme Hall national park plan, for example. When we erase the “white elephants” decorating the edge of the plan, we are left with the stark reality. The entire plan, it seems evident, is to prevent sewerage from entering Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary. The plan describes the destruction of a large area of fresh water sedge habitat that waterbirds of many kinds rely on for feeding to be replaced with a “fishing lake” (sewerage catchment) that will be useless for birds. All this on the Government-owned east side of the wetland!Further, the plan favours human recreation use over biotic conservation. Loss of foraging habitat and increased human disturbance will spell disaster for the ecological integrity of the wetland. The Ramsar Convention Status mandates “wise management.” The destruction of valuable wildlife habitat has no place near the category of wise management. Our Governments have been very wise to ignore this proposal. Unfortunately, some locals endorsed the idea of a national park at Graeme Hall Swamp without critical analysis or cross-examination of the plan.Mr. Allard cites lack of Government interest in the plan as influencing his decision to close the Sanctuary. There are alternative explanatory hypotheses, but, again, I will refrain. Without doubt Graeme Hall Swamp requires a greater level of local protection. The wetland is internationally recognised by the Ramsar Convention as of global importance and most recently by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area. I would not want anyone to “give” me a new “free” sluice gate to get tangled up in strings. However, a functioning sluice gate and provision to move sand blocking the gate are fundamental to the health of the swamp’s ecosystem and the adjacent marine environment. A Management Committee for Graeme Hall Swamp urgently requires reincarnation! An inter-disciplinary committee of informed, objective, dedicated people whose overall mandate is conservation of what is left of the ecological integrity of the wetland, is the place to start.The fact is that the more frequently the gate is opened, the less obnoxious the discharge. Further, the more seawater that gets into the swamp, the healthier the swamp and the discharge. Any surfer knows that under certain conditions of tide, wind direction, and sea swell that sea water will get into the swamp. Several times over the last six years I have seen sea water come up the canal, under the road, and into the mangroves. A reliable witness reports this to be the case on the evening of Friday, October 17, 2008!Next, during the most recent (not last) cycle of erosion at Sandy Beach, the “rebuilding” of the beach demonstrated the authorities’ priority. To quote an unknown graffiti poet: “Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up!” Does anyone remember when Mr. “Sonny” Edghill moored a large houseboat barge off Sandy Beach that Uncle Vincent Burke towed through the channel in the reef and into the lagoon? This was before human changes to the shoreline east of Sandy Beach slowed and deflected the inshore current that scoured the lagoon of excess sand. These were the days of sand dollars, sea grass beds, music shells and bivalve mollusks thriving in the lagoon at Sandy Beach.Quite obviously, when the sluice gate was installed it was at the historical high tide mark not the current one. This artefact would better be relocated and displayed at the Barbados Museum. It is a simple matter to manage a new automated sluice gate to facilitate discharge of swamp water and recharge with oxygen-rich sea water. Depending on sea conditions, discharge at night and recharge by day! Does anyone remember the floods of October late 1970s? When floodwater was coming own Bush Hill and Garrison Hill like Kaiteur Falls? Does anyone remember how GHS flooded surrounding areas? Surely it is time for an automated gate that can be operated by a single person. Who is going to pump what where when the Sewerage Plant is under floodwater?Were the Government-owned east side of the wetland to be restored to look like an old shooting swamp, it would do two things. One, it would increase the numbers and species of waterbirds feeding there and so increase the ecological value. And, two, it would significantly decrease the numbers of mosquitoes breeding there. Do not forget the Greek root “eco” meaning “house” at the base of both ecology and economy. Our house is our environment. To “externalize” environmental costs, as in conventional economic theory, is, to put it nicely, short sighted.What is my agenda? Protecting the ecological integrity of Graeme Hall Swamp and the adjacent marine environment. Remember when Sir David Seale had a really fast colt named Local Knowledge? Well, without doubt university degrees are important, but local knowledge is key. “One-Eye-Jack is King in Blind-Man-Country,” for short, but not for long.Wayne “doc” Burke