North Shore Environmental Stewards Team (NEST) members say they have pictures to prove eaglets are in a nest adjacent to Hwy. 99 construction and they want acknowledgment from the project's contractor and Water, Land and Air Protection (WLAP).
"Kiewit (the main contractor on the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project) still doesn't believe it's an active nest," said NEST member Lawrence Ruskin. "I think it's plain stubbornness and they just want to get on with the blasting."
NEST member Susan Cameron said pictures taken by her son on June 4 show eaglets in the nest. And a pair of adult eagles is exhibiting incubating or chick-rearing behaviour, according to biologist and NEST advisor David Hancock who visited the nest June 13.
The Sea to Sky Highway Project Community Relations Manager Rick Hyde said the contractor is sticking to the response given on May 26 after NEST initially expressed concerns.
"Peter Kiewit Sons... will delay the rock blasting south of the Ansell Place overpass until at least the end of June to ensure that the work will not impact a pair of eagles which may be nesting near the community," stated the response. "If the nest becomes active, blasting will be further postponed until the eagles and any fledglings have left the nest and the nest is once more inactive. This typically happens around the end of August."
Hancock said he could not clearly identify chicks within the nest, but that the adult's behaviour left no doubt in his mind as to the eaglets' presence.
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