Dogs may be man’s best friend, but least terns don’t share that sentiment.

That’s why Audubon Florida’s Brian Cammarano and bird lover Maggi Roberts say the idea of putting a dog park on Navarre Beach, in an area where least terns are actively nesting and have for years, borders on the ludicrous.

“It’s a bit problematic,” Cammarano said. “We have dog issues out here without a dog park.”

Yet despite the concerns expressed by the Audubon Society and three Navarre Beach Leaseholders and Residents Association votes against the idea, surveyors have posted stakes labeled “proposed dog park” on county owned land in an area just north of White Sands Boulevard near its intersection with Indiana Street.

“That’s what stirred everybody up. The people who live here noticed it,” Roberts said. “We didn’t know when it would happen.”

Ironically, the staked off area where a dog park could be, which runs all the way to the water of Santa Rosa Sound, is for the time being itself cordoned off behind string fencing warning people to stay off the beach during least tern nesting season, which runs from late April to approximately mid-September.

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Least terns are vocal little birds oft seen diving for small fish in shallow coastal waters. They lay their brilliantly camouflaged eggs in the white sands of the Gulf Coast and raise their equally well disguised young in the vicinity of the nests. Their population is on the decline and they are considered a federally threatened species.

A marauding dog, or human for that matter, can easily crush precious eggs or kill chicks, and noise emanating from a dog park could force the least terns away from their chosen nesting site which, when conditions are right, they return to year after year.

Cammarano said he has identified some nesting sites within or near the staked off areas where the dog park is planned, though the number of nests is not as high as it has been in the past.

A much more popular least tern nesting site can be found on the Gulf of Mexico side of the barrier Island on which Navarre Beach resides. On the east side of beach access 39A the tiny terns share a chunk of undisturbed beach with Northwest Florida’s largest nesting community of black skimmers, the terns’ much larger and equally threatened cousins.

The nesting site provides what in many ways is an ideal communal nesting habitat, Cammarano said. There is enough human interaction with the area to keep natural predators like coyotes and raccoons away and the birds themselves have acclimated to people well enough that they’re not disturbed by the occasional bird nerd watching them going about their daily business of nesting, mating and raising their young.

On the negative side of things, humans − who tend to leave edible material wherever they roam − have attracted nest robbers like fish crows and laughing gulls.

Cammarano said he also has concerns that with so many birds sharing a single nesting area, the birds themselves are “putting their eggs in one basket.”

“This situation, with all of these birds nesting in one place, if anything major were to happen, we’d have a huge loss,” he said.

Cammarano argues that’s one more reason to keep what lightly visited vacant sandy spots remain on the heavily populated island open and available for birds like the skimmers and least terns to nest upon.

“They don’t mind sharing with us, we just need to give them some space,” he said.

The Navarre Beach Leaseholders and Residents Association has come out in opposition to the proposed dog park for an altogether different reason than that of the bird protectors, according to Jim Sutton, the vice president of the association.

“Our concern pre-existed the Florida Fish and Wildlife and Audubon concerns,” Sutton said.

Sutton said the few people who want the dog park live on the mainland, as opposed to Navarre Beach proper, and island residents don’t need headaches brought on by the pets of visitors.

“Our homeowners are opposed to dogs on the beach because people don’t manage their dogs and they don’t clean up after them,” Sutton said.

He said in meeting with County Administrator Brad Baker and Ray Eddington, the county commissioner who represents Navarre Beach, association members suggested those who want to take their dogs to the beach go to Pensacola Beach for that opportunity and those who want to visit a dog park visit an existing one in Navarre.

Eddington said he had been approached by constituents about establishing the Navarre Beach dog park and giving people a place with beach access to take their pets. He agreed that many of those people did not live on the island.

The popularity of the beach dog park idea seems to be waning, he said.

“It’s on hold,” he said. “We’re not doing anything until we find out if the people want it or not. If people don’t want it I’m not going to put a dog park out there. We’ve got a lot more important things to put our money toward. I cannot make everybody happy. I just try to make the most happy.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Navarre Beach dog park faces opposition from Audubon Florida residents