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Indian River County Exhibit 4 17 Customary Use Hearing — October 2, 2018 Kendra Cope Testimony I have been employed by the County for air -host 3.5 years. During this time, I have held the position of Coastal Environmental Specialist. Although I have the privilege of managingseveral coastal programs, my main responsibility is to implement and manage the County's Habitat Conservation Plan (NCP) for the Protection of Sea Turtles. The County's NCP sets goals for our beaches to_ become a more productive nesting habitat and the plan provides a strategy for County -wide sea turtle monitoring and protection. Part of my responsibilities is to conduct daily nesting surveys in the southern portion of the County, but also to manage all other sea turtle Permit Holders that conduct sea turtle nesting surveys along Indian River County Beaches. I also work with County and City lifeguards to assist with hatchling recovery and sea turtle stranding events This requires weekly updates from these permit holders and occasional visits to the beaches for observation or turtle rescue. The area of concern or today's hearing is Wabasso Beach, a very popular public beach, and the Summerplace neighborhood. When not assisting the Coastal Engineer on beach projects, I visit this section of beach approximately six times a year. During my beach visits to the area of concern, I usually observe people utilizing the beach collecting shells, -sunbathing, exercising, cleaning the beach, surfing/skim boarding, etc. Until recently, I have never observed a private property owner restrict public access along the sandy beach. Since the installation of restricted access, the permit holders who monitor sea turtle nesting have been asked to remain outside the boundary and to record all data from outside the barricade. if a nest was to be marked inside the barricade they were to call me to come and mark it form them. It is most likely due to it being the end of the nesting season that we have no had a nest laid inside the barricade, since there are records of nests inside that barricaded area from earlier in the season and in previous years. There were non nesting crawls that enter the barricaded area and the turtle did .interact with the bollards outlining the restricted zone. 222