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Birders Flock Together In Quest to Return To Bay Bridge-Tunnel=0D
In Face of Terrorism Concerns, Nature Lovers Crafted a Strategy=0D
=0D
By Carol Morello=0D
Washington Post Staff Writer=0D
Tuesday, June 14, 2005; A01=0D
=0D
CAPE CHARLES, Va. -- Screenwriters and cartoonists often cast bird-watche=
rs
as timid eccentrics in funny hats with Sibley guides sticking out from th=
eir
safari jackets and binoculars around their necks. The perfect disguise fo=
r a
terrorist, perhaps?=0D
But serious ornithologists tend to have a bit of Indiana Jones in them. N=
ed
Brinkley, for one, has driven into hurricanes looking for birds blown off
course to unusual places. He has floated through swamps searching for
evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct. And he was not
about to knuckle under meekly when he learned that officials worried abou=
t
terrorism were about to ban visitors from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunne=
l,
one of the best birding spots on the East Coast.=0D
Ever since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have grown accustomed=
to
probes into their private lives and a great many new restrictions. From
full-body searches at airport boarding gates to barricades around the
Capitol, the nation has accepted many intrusive and prohibitive security
measures as the price of safety.=0D
Bird-watchers are oddly vulnerable to the new scrutiny. They carry
binoculars, scopes and cameras. They like to go to such places as buffer
zones around military bases and nuclear power plants, where lots of birds
roost. They are sometimes turned in to police by suspicious passersby.=0D
This time, Brinkley and a few cohorts were prepared to fight back. Their
successful effort to regain access to the bridge islands illustrates how =
it
is possible to continue their activities, even in a security-conscious ag=
e.
But it requires concessions that once would have been considered extreme.=
It
is a predicament many Americans are facing.=0D
Today, the commission overseeing the span is scheduled to vote on a
compromise negotiated with the bridge's executive director and head of
security. Under the plan, scientists and researchers would be allowed to =
go
on the islands that connect the bridge once they get a pass, renewed
annually. Amateur bird-watchers would have to submit to a security check
several weeks in advance and pay $50 an hour for a police escort.=0D
"Why allow people whose intentions we don't know [to] dictate how our liv=
es
as Americans, our lives as Virginians, our lives as bird-watchers, are
restricted?" asked Brinkley, who runs a bed-and-breakfast in Cape Charles
when he is not leading bird-watching tours.=0D
"It's patriotic to question bureaucratic decisions that impinge on our
liberties. Are we vigilant or cowards? Are we creative, or passive and la=
zy?
=0D
Their success also illustrates that bird-watchers have friends in high
places.=0D
They conferred with security experts who have worked for places that know=
a
thing or two about counterterrorism tactics -- the Pentagon, State
Department, United Nations, airports and nuclear power plants. They boned=
up
on threat scenarios involving biological weapons and researched padlocks =
and
high-tech ID cards. They offered to undergo criminal background checks an=
d
take crime-watch training.=0D
"At some point, you have to choose between your lifestyle and increasing
your security," said Tim Travan, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq =
who
advised the bird-watchers on counterterrorism issues. "If you give up too
many civil rights and have too-draconian security, what exactly is it you
are protecting?"=0D
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 17.6-mile span that costs $17 round-t=
rip
for a passenger car, connects Virginia's Eastern Shore with the mainland =
at
Virginia Beach. The entrance and exit of two tunnels in the middle of the
bay are secured by small, man-made islands of granite boulders. At the
southernmost island, there is a restaurant and a fishing pier open to the
public.=0D
The three northern islands are popular with bird-watchers. The authority
that operates the bridge has courted birders with ads in premiere
ornithological journals. Bird-watchers consider it a special place to
observe up to 350 species of birds, like being on a ship in open water.=0D
Until this year, visitor passes were handed out almost casually. A mailed=
or
faxed request routinely secured a letter of permission granting access to
the islands for a year.=0D
That changed after a risk analysis by the state Department of Transportat=
ion
It warned that the air-intake buildings providing ventilation to the
tunnels were prone to sabotage, said Steven M. Mondul, state director of =
the
Office of Security and Emergency Management. Homeland Security authorized=
a
$1.3 million grant to secure the ventilation.=0D
The report triggered a rethinking of the entire approach to security. Las=
t
year, 800 letters of permission were handed out to birders who provided
little more identification than a driver's license. The authority conclud=
ed
that it had not screened visitors well or kept tabs on their movements.
Allowing the public, even bird-watchers, was a potential threat.=0D
"Everybody knows that post-9/11, we can't do anything like we did before,=
"
said Clement M. Pruitt, head of the bridge's police force. "Anybody who c=
an
fly planes into the twin towers can find ways to circumvent our rules."=0D
No one questioned the need for more security on the bridge, located just
north of the largest Navy base on the East Coast.=0D
"We believe this is in the top 100, if not the top 20, terrorist targets =
in
America," Brinkley said. "We accept their assessment of the threat."=0D
Short of a specific threat, however, many wondered if the ban accomplishe=
d
its intended purpose. Why keep the southernmost island, with its restaura=
nt
and pier, open to the public? Why allow fishing boats to approach? And wo=
uld
a fence around the ventilation buildings really keep out a determined
terrorist?=0D
"We've all come to realize we're living in a different world," said Mitch=
ell
A. Byrd, an ornithologist at the College of William and Mary who has been
observing birds on the bridge since it opened in 1964. "Some of our right=
s,
like the total freedom of movement to do what you want to do, are
compromised. The issue is, to what purpose?"=0D
Many wondered what might be sacrificed next.=0D
"If this would help protect this great land of ours by giving up part of =
a
privilege, I would do so willingly," said Alice Wheeley, a real estate
broker who has been an avid bird-watcher for 40 years. "But you kind of
wonder, if you give up one privilege, how many more are you going to give=
up
and why?"=0D
In April, after hundreds of bird-watchers had mailed in objections, the
bridge authority offered an alternative plan. There would be no annual
permits; groups would be admitted by prior arrangement. And they would ha=
ve
to pay for an off-duty police officer to accompany their every step.=0D
But the birders contended that the advance notice was unworkable. Nobody
could predict when a hurricane would hit, driving in many seabirds rarely
seen in Virginia.=0D
Lucius Kellam III, the bridge authority's interim executive director and =
son
of the man for whom the bridge is named, was willing to find a compromise=
=2E=0D
"Obviously, it can be done," he said. "The question is, at what cost and =
who
pays?"=0D
With Brinkley in the lead, the birders started researching.=0D
Byrd called the Surrey nuclear power plant, which birders pass to get to =
a
state refuge on Hog Island. Both coming and going, visitors to the refuge
must stop so guards can check under their hoods.=0D
Brinkley consulted with J. Christian Kessler, who heads the State Departm=
ent
s office dealing with export control and conventional arms nonproliferati=
on.
He also birds on the bridge.=0D
"The fact is, certain security is necessary," said Kessler, who passes tw=
o
checkpoints en route to his own office. "On the other hand, we can reach =
a
point where the steps we're taking to protect our security start to so
change the way we live that, in essence, we've permitted the terrorists t=
o
make us different than we want to be. And to give up some of what we valu=
ed
and made us different and special."=0D
After a month of imagining ways to thwart a terrorist, Brinkley recommend=
ed
a middle ground replete with security measures, which he said was prefera=
ble
to "handing victories to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups without a
strong effort to maintain the lives we have lived and that we love."=0D
He suggested that birders get access to the bridge islands by submitting =
to
background checks with national law enforcement agencies, including the C=
IA
and the FBI; agreeing to vehicle checks with undercarriage mirrors and
searches by explosives-sniffing dogs and Geiger counters; and paying for
identity cards that have magnetic strips. He further recommended the tunn=
els
be equipped with detection devices for chemical and biological agents.=0D
The birders pronounced themselves grateful for even the limited access.=0D
Brinkley's only regret is that he could not convince anyone of the merits=
of
training bird-watchers to be on the lookout for terrorists.=0D
"I think there could have been a core of people who would be black belt b=
ird-watchers," he said. "But no one wanted to coordinate it."
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