Réserve Naturelle Director Nicolas Maslach with project collaborators and the recently-completed viewpoint indicator at Babit Point, Oyster Pond.
MARIGOT–Conservatoire du Littoral recently installed a viewpoint indicator (table d’orientation) at the protected Babit Point site in Oyster Pond, part of several improvements in the area.
The circular stone structure with a map of the area on top points out interesting features in a 360-degree arc and serves as an informative tool for tourists and residents alike. It was supposed to have been installed in September 2017, but was postponed until the end of March due to Hurricane Irma.
Similar informative viewpoint indicators have been installed in the past on Fort Louis, Pinel Island, Pic Paradis and other sites.
The mission of the Conservatoire du littoral is to preserve the characteristic natural sites of the island’s coastline while guaranteeing public access. Areas owned by the Conservatoire are permanently excluded from urban development.
L’Association Syndicale Libre de Oyster Pond, at its Annual General Meeting in June 2013, had voted by a very large majority to transfer to the Conservatoire du Littoral a 4.7-hectare parcel it owned on the Babit Point site. This new acquisition was in addition to the protection of a 1.8-hectare plot the Conservatoire had acquired in April 2013, from the owners.
Thanks to these two acquisitions, the beautiful natural Babit Point site, which includes in particular many Tête-à-l’Anglais cactus, has thus been definitively preserved.
Conservatoire du littoral and Réserve Naturelle in St. Martin, in consultation with residents, led an ecological and landscape restoration project, as well as a project to welcome the public. The old ruin was demolished (2014) and a wooden fence installed (2015).
Following the passage of Hurricane Irma, the site suffered some damage; for example, the fence was damaged, but will be repaired in the coming weeks, and the presence of waste from dwellings in the vicinity, which will be removed.
The complete operation (demolition of the old ruin, installation of a fence and the viewpoint indicator) was co-financed 80 per cent by the French State within the framework of the Development Contract. Conservatoire contributed 20 per cent from its own funds for a total project cost of 112, 231 euros.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/75393-viewpoint-indicator-installed-at-protected-babit-point-site
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