Residents of a Massachusetts coastal city say that they had been warned that flying flags on their very own property might violate endangered species legal guidelines, sparking outrage in the neighborhood simply days earlier than the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Plum Island owners just lately obtained a discover from the City of Newbury warning that it had “grow to be conscious of the usage of units and supplies supposed to discourage” protected shorebirds from utilizing native seashore and dune techniques.
The letter listed “mylar streamers, flags, [and] reflective supplies” as examples of such units.
The letter, obtained by Fox Information Digital, goes on to warning that “actions supposed to discourage protected shorebirds from using appropriate habitat could also be considered as harassment or disruption of regular feeding, nesting, or migratory conduct,” which is prohibited beneath the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, and “carry important regulatory and monetary penalties.”
“Non-compliance could lead to state or federal enforcement actions and, thus, the City urges residents to adjust to relevant state and federal wildlife safety legal guidelines,” the discover states.
Longtime residents of the seashore group had been surprised by the letter, decoding the inclusion of “flags” as focusing on their Independence Day celebrations.
Marc Sarkady, who has lived on the island for over 30 years, mentioned he was outraged.
“Are you critical?” Sarkady recounted his response, in an interview with Fox Information Digital. “You’re telling me I can’t fly American flags on my property to rejoice America 250?”
Sarkady mentioned the world options roughly “ten miles of open seashore” utterly free of homes the place birds can freely roam.
“It’s a nature protect,” he mentioned. “So to us, it’s like, people, come on, be cheap.”
City officers, nevertheless, informed Fox Information Digital that they don’t seem to be prohibiting patriotic shows.
Newbury City Administrator Tracy Blais mentioned that the city is “not in any approach trying to intrude with the property proprietor’s rights to make use of their property or to limit their use of their property for peculiar and patriotic functions.”
In accordance with Blais, the city merely agreed to a request from MassWildlife to assist “unfold the phrase” about defending endangered species.
“The letter merely recited provisions of the regulation and the City isn’t asserting any menace or authorized legal responsibility — merely reminding property house owners that they stay in a really particular place which comes together with sure duties,” Blais mentioned.
The city mentioned residents had been free to rejoice America’s 250th and denied that the letter indicated in any other case.
“The City isn’t asserting any rights or management it doesn’t have, and I believe the City’s letter is fairly clear on that time,” she mentioned in an announcement.
Previous to receiving the letter final week, Sarkady and different group members launched a grassroots effort to distribute American flags and indicators to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary.
They distributed round 50 American flags and round 100 revolutionary-style flag indicators studying, “Plum Island Honors America,” to residents throughout the island.
“It’s actually us attempting to deliver the island collectively — everyone, by the best way, not left, not proper, America, Americans, and actually reaching out. That’s actually the spirit of what I’m attempting to do right here,” Sarkady defined.
In accordance with Sarkady, this isn’t the neighborhood’s first conflict with officers over beachfront decorations.
He claimed that final 12 months, a Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife official despatched a virtually identically worded letter to considered one of his neighbors after she put up decorative banners on her beachside garden.
He alleged the state official then known as her immediately, threatening extreme penalties if she didn’t comply — a declare the state company flatly denied.
“This particular person truly threatened the citizen from Plum Island, who’s a house owner with fines and probably being arrested and put in jail,” Sarkady mentioned, including that the neighbor finally took her shows down out of worry. “She felt very threatened.”
In response, a MassWildLife spokesperson informed Fox Information Digital, “MassWildlife isn’t prohibiting residents from displaying American flags on their property and has not issued any violation letters or notices to those landowners, nor has it taken any motion to impose or threaten penalties.”
Sarkady and two of his neighbors obtained the city’s newest discover final week, prompting them to contact the Pacific Authorized Basis (PLF) for help.
On Wednesday, the authorized group despatched a letter to City of Newbury Conservation Agent Mason Ferrick, stating that the city’s calls for raised “important issues” relating to property rights and the authorized foundation for its claims.
The PLF letter asks the city to make clear whether it is claiming that owners are legally prohibited from displaying flags, streamers, or reflective supplies on their non-public property.
It additionally calls for the authorized foundation for a way the Massachusetts and federal Endangered Species Acts apply to privately owned beachfront property.
In accordance with PLF, no courtroom has ever discovered a house owner liable beneath these endangered species acts for displaying decorations on their non-public property.
“Flying the crimson, white, and blue on the Fourth of July is as American as apple pie,” Mark Miller, director of Surroundings and Pure Assets Litigation at Pacific Authorized Basis, mentioned in a press launch.
“For Massachusetts native officers to say in any other case violates each the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Structure. As Massachusetts Founding Father John Adams famously mentioned, ‘property should be secured, or liberty can’t exist.’”
In response to the state and native officers’ feedback, Miller informed Fox Information Digital, “When governments ship letters that appear to be threats, sound like threats, and stroll like threats, they shouldn’t be shocked when folks take them as threats.”
Plum Island in Massachusetts shares its title with one other Plum Island off the coast of Lengthy Island in New York. That Plum Island is owned by the US authorities and has been used for analysis and experiments. The 2 Plum Islands are unrelated.
