NASA held hearings yesterday as part of an environmental assessment associated with plans for a private launch complex at the Kennedy Space Center. As I understand it, one of the proposed sites would effectively shut down operation of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Abandoned launch pads abound south of the present shuttle launch complex, so it is hard for me to imagine why they would have to destroy pristine habitat. There were two meetings yesterday and the overwhelming majority of attendees at them voice their opposition to this site proposal, as I would have been had I been there:

"That you would even consider it boggles my mind," Wes Biggs of Orlando told NASA representatives seeking public input at two back-to-back hearings in Titusville City Council chambers. "The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge isn't just another refuge. It's one of the jewels of the federal wildlife system, and it is known worldwide."

(You tell 'em Wes!)

"If NASA builds Site 2, NASA will become my enemy," Biggs said at the afternoon meeting. "Really, that's how I look at it. Just the idea that NASA would consider as a last resort building on Site 2 boggles my mind. I don't know if you've got an understanding what type of firestorm you'll get if you do this."

Besides the fact it is just a great place to go birding, I am especially partial because it is the place where I "discovered" birds back in 1999 and saw my very first wild Bald Eagle shortly after that. I love the space program but, like Mr. Biggs, I would be one very unhappy fellow if this went down. Nor to mention that it would probably kill the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, one of the largest in the country - I just can't imagine the amount of money it would pull from the local economy. There are times when there's a long parade of cars winding their way along Black Point Wildlife Drive.

Another thing that concerns me is it sounds like this "Site 2" will be in pretty close proximity to the largest remaining concentration of Florida Scrub-jays. Listed as "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, this could be a bad thing for them, too. They have been squeezed out of other areas at an alarming rate and, at least with the last governor of the state, nothing much was done to help protect the "Scrubbies".

If I can find a link for written comment, I'll post it here because this is such a monumentally stupid idea.