The itch of summer is more than the common yearning for a vacation during the hottest part of the year. It is the bite of pesky mosquitoes that often make coastal wetlands and marshes their home.
Not only are mosquitoes a nuisance for many coastal residents, but they can drive away tourists and otherwise impact local economies. The bite of a mosquito also can make you sick.
The primary concern today for mosquito-borne disease is viral encephalitis, often caused by the West Nile virus.
Experts believe West Nile virus is a seasonal epidemic in North America that flares up in the summer and continues into the fall. Since 1999, when West Nile was first identified in the U.S., the virus has caused nearly 17,000 cases of human illness, including more than 650 deaths.
When people die, communities can panic, prompting emergency requests to coastal management programs to dredge mosquito ditches, drain wetlands, or spray pesticides on sensitive environmental areas. Under these circumstances, it can be difficult for coastal resource managers to justify environmental concerns.
The common enmity between mosquito control programs where environmental protection is not the primary mission and natural resource programs may make these situations even thornier.
In the cover story of this edition of Coastal Services, we will take a look at mosquito control in Delaware, where proactive collaboration between coastal resource managers and mosquito control program officials is helping to head off conflicts between agencies and is addressing many environmental concerns before there is a crisis.
Also in this edition, you can read about an award-winning nonpoint source pollution project outside of Philadelphia that has raised the ire of some residents. You will also learn about a new partnership for cooperative coastal conservation between coastal land trust organizations and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coastal Services Center.
To find out more about collaborating with these important coastal resource managers, be sure to attend the National Land Conservation Conference: Rally 2005 from October 14 to 17 in Madison, Wisconsin. To register, go to www.lta.org/training/rally.htm.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
