"Officials want it to stay No Man’s Land" by Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff | July 12, 2010
NO MAN’S LAND — After spending $100,000 on a 15-year plan for No Man’s Land, federal officials want it to stay that way.
Your tax dollars at work, America.
The Fish & Wildlife Service has recommended that No Man’s Land be protected as federal wilderness, meaning that if the public wants a glimpse of this National Wildlife Refuge, options could be limited to a virtual tour on the Web or a magnifying scope on the Vineyard.
The island, used as an aerial bombing range from 1943 to 1996, is pocked with unexploded munitions that make one of Southern New England’s last wild places a potentially deadly hazard.
Yeah, the WARS RUINED YOUR WILDERNESS, America.
Hope to hell it was worth it!
“I think it’s important to have a few places that are completely prohibited from the public,’’ said Stephanie Koch, a US Fish & Wildlife Service biologist, who walked the beach at No Man’s Land recently in search of a piping plover nest. “I know that’s a hard sell for a lot of people.’’
Related: Globe Walks Gulf Coast Beaches
I don't think you will be finding any.
It’s also a reality that four Navy sweeps of the island since 1997 have not altered. Although munitions have been found, defused, and removed from the surface, an undetermined amount of bombs lie underground and undetected.
“The result could be catastrophic,’’ Koch said of public access to No Man’s Land.
But this nightmare for human visitors is a blessing for its avian guests.
I guess dropping all the bombs and polluting a beautiful place was worth it after all, America.
Due to its undisturbed nature and shortage of predators, No Man’s Land is an important stop on the Atlantic Flyway for songbirds migrating south as far as South America.
Northern harriers, oystercatchers, roseate terns, catbirds, double-crested cormorants, and even piping plovers are a few of the many species that the Fish & Wildlife Service monitors in roughly six visits to the island each year....
They will not be returning after this year.
Bartholomew Gosnold, an English explorer, sighted the island in 1602, and more than three centuries of habitation followed until the Crane family sold No Man’s Land to the Navy in 1952....
The danger of buried munitions has led to fishing restrictions, as well as the ban on public access. Still, two unauthorized visitors walked the island after they anchored offshore....
That privilege, however, led to a $100 fine levied by a Fish & Wildlife Service officer....
Of course, that IS YOUR ISLAND, American people!
You just can't see or visit it even though you paid for it all.
--more--"
Yeah, don't go swimming or fishing.
