Gualala July 4 fireworks fight goes to court today

A two-year battle over the fireworks that bother birds at Gualala's Fourth of July celebration has made its way into the courts.

Fireworks proponents filed a request Thursday in Mendocino County Superior Court to stop the California Coastal Commission from ordering a halt to the fireworks when it meets June 11.

Legal arguments in the case are expected to be heard at 1:30 p.m. today.

Commission staff is calling for the order because the Gualala Festivals Committee won't apply for a coastal development permit for the fireworks.

"They simply refused," said state Deputy Attorney General Joseph Rusconi, who represents the Coastal Commission.

Permits normally are not required, but officials are concerned the fireworks may be harming seabirds that nest on a nearby federally protected island.

Fireworks advocates contend the Coastal Commission doesn't have the authority to require a development permit.

"We think they're overreaching," said Paul Beard, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento, which represents the Gualala Festivals Committee.

He also doubts the fireworks are causing seabirds to abandon their nests on Gualala Point Island, located 100 yards offshore from the Sea Ranch. The claim of an island exodus is behind the commission's demand for a permit.

The island is part of the California Coastal National Monument Program and is protected by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

It is home to cormorants, black oyster catchers, Western gulls and pigeon guillemots.

After the first Gualala fireworks display in 2006, a number of Sea Ranch and Gualala residents complained that the event had a negative effect on the birds.

Before the second display last year, the commission told the fireworks organizers they needed a development permit but did not stop the fireworks from taking place.

A federal monitoring program was set up that included trained observers, aerial overflights and infrared photography.

A BLM report on the study, completed in February, found a higher than usual number of cormorant nests were abandoned in the three days following the fireworks and concluded that the fireworks were the likely cause.

Other birds also were disturbed, but they were not nesting at the time, according to the report.

Beard called the report "inconclusive."

And if there are impacts on seabirds, a wildlife agency, not the Coastal Commission, should be the one demanding a permit for the fireworks, he said.

Rusconi said it's rare for the commission to regulate fireworks, but it has been done, including in Monterey County and the city of Morro Bay.

The fireworks issue has divided the residents of Gualala, an unincorporated town of about 450 people located just north of the Sonoma County line.

"The community is divided just about half and half," said Bill Davy, who opposes the fireworks, primarily because he worries they're detrimental to wildlife.

Marshall Sayegh, a fireworks proponent, is dismayed there might not be fireworks this year in Gualala, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

"This is ludicrous," he said of the Coastal Commission's demand for a permit.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com"We think they're overreaching."

PAUL BEARD, attorney for

Gualala Festivals Committee,

on Coastal Commission's request

for permit for fireworks show