For years folks have used off-road vehicles to negotiate some of the farther reaches of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. And for years the National Park Service failed to develop a management plan for those ORVers. And now it's time to pay the piper.
On April 3 a federal judge will consider a request by Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society to restrict ORV access to South Ocracoke, Hatteras Spit, North Ocracoke, Cape Point, South Beach and Bodie Island Spit for up to three years because of the presence of piping plovers, which have been considered a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act since January 1986.
The lawsuit contends the Park Service has run afoul of the National Park Organic Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the enabling legislation for the seashore, and the Park Service's own Management Policies by implementing an interim ORV management plan and failing to produce a long-term management plan.
The National Park Service’s Interim Plan and the ORV use it allows are substantially harming – and will continue to harm – important populations of endangered and threatened sea turtle species, threatened, special concern, or significantly rare bird species, and a threatened plant species, as well as other natural resources, serenity, and other recreational uses of the Seashore generally, reads one of the claims.
On Saturday, in a protest against the conservation groups, an estimated 200 ORV supporters showed up in a gale at Cape Point on the seashore to attend a rally.
In Sunday's editions of the Charlotte Observer, meanwhile, outdoors writer Tim Higgins satirized the situation by looking into the future to listen to a conversation between a young boy and his grandfather over why they no longer fish at Cape Point.
What's unfortunate is that the Park Service might have avoided this situation by acting sooner on developing a management plan for ORVs.
Comments
Thanks to all the folks that have posted and shown you care on both sides of the issue!
Yes even you BW!
Big Red
Snowbird, you continue to amaze me. So here's some more facts for you to ignore.
73 miles of ocean beach on Hatteras Island, less than half of that is open to ORV access in the Winter and roughly 25% or less during the breeding season depending on the size and scope of the closures. The remaining portions of beach are closed for nesting, safety and seasonal closures. The seasonal closures exist to provide pedestrian access in an ORV free zone and for years now, the majority of them have remained closed year round in spite of the lack of pedestrian traffic.
The picture used in the article is of the beach on the north side of Oregon Inlet on Memorial Day weekend and doesn't come close to an average weekend usage. Average usage during the summer puts less than 50 vehicles in that same mile and change of beach. Assuming the beach isn't covered with water. By the way, that will happen today, tonight and tomorrow because of the winds.
On the other side of the inlet is Pea Island. No ORV access at any time. And yet no Plovers and breeding success for the other birds is no greater than in areas where ORV traffic is allowed in the proximity of breeding closures.
The majority of Hatteras Island and almost 90% of Ocracoke are part of the CHNSRA and absolutly no development will ever occur there. So nothing like the nightmare you describe in your back yard will happen here. Again, I suggest you go to Google Earth and have a peek.
You mentioned an EIS...that can mean one of two things. If youre referring to an envirnmental impact study, the EIS reguarding ORV useage showed No Significant Impact. The same is true about the EIS reguarding the replacement of the Bonner Bridge.
If youre referring to an Economic Impact study...the data that the Voglesoong study contains; that which DOW, Audubun, and SELC like to tout shows minimal economic impact by closing the beaches. Not hard to do when you dont bother to survey beach users and buisness owners and restrict your survey to a smattering of visitors to the lighthouse and some windsurfers at canadian hole neither of whom need four wheel drive or beach access.
Compaction studies have been attempted on our beaches in an effort to determine if ORV usage harmed the beaches. The problem was/is that every time it rains all compaction data is erradicated. You cant find impact where none exists. In fact, with todays winds and tonights rains, when I head out to the Point in the morning at dawn, there will be no tire tracks or ruts. Just a pristine beach. We enjoy perhaps the most dynamic beach system on the planet. Our beach changes shape daily. Not because of ORV traffic, just plain 'ol nature.
Again, this is not a zoo. The birds are not required to nest within the bounds of the park. The N.C. bird survey which was just released shows increased success in breeding. Especially within sight of the Park.
ORV use within the park has been on the decline since the mid '90's, bird closures have been erected earlier and they are larger than ever. But that has had no real impact on breeding success.
2007 was one of the most successful breeding seasons for Plovers in years. But it wasn't the larger, earlier closures that did it...it was the lack of storms during breeding season. You may scoff at that but bear in mind that the vast majority of these islands rest less than 8 feet above mean sea level. Even a reasonable storm can flood this place closing the highways and cutting off our access to higher ground. In fact, that happened just last saturday. And might happen again today. And when the highway is flooded, all of the beaches are too; meaning any Tern, Plover, Skimmer etc. looses their nest and chicks. And what the water doesn't get, the ghost crabs do. Please explain to me how my truck on the beach has any effect on the power of mother nature.
This place is unlike anything you've probobly ever seen in your life. And we do a fantastic job of maintaining it. If I were a millionare I'd offer to fly you out here so you could see it for yourself. Id take the time to show you how things work out here, thirty miles out to sea. You would be in awe. But you would leave with an understaning you dont have now. And in all likelyhood, youd want to stay forever.
my $.02
Wheat
OK Snowbird, with all of this, you still don't get it.
1) The sportsmen that use the ORV's are the best protection the resource has. They bring more resources and footprints to bear when needed than any other group is willing or able to do. Why do you refuse to akcnowledge that or your lack of knowledge about the situation? Wetlands in Cali are far from the eco-system of the OBX.
2) If the average fisherman on the OBX sees someone "raping" the resource, it will be a very bad day for the perpetrator, guranteed. The fishermen I refer to are not the holiday tourist that come once a year, I am talking about a group of very motivated individuals who have spent a ton of time and money to master one of the most specialized forms of fishing ever known. All the time and effort required to master this sport requires the participant to revere the resource fully.
3) You only pick the bits and pieces of the situation and comments that are inflamatory. The vehicles are no detriment to the environment on Hatteras when compared to the crap in the rain (some of which came from good ole Cali) and the fertilizers and waste in the water dumped from all areas east of the crest of the Blue Ridge.
4) Bottom line is, it is NOT your back yard. I do not pretend to be well informed about the plight of the Blacktail deer and how they are dealing with the huge encroachment of humans in California but I am willing to bet I know more about deer overpopulation and vehicular incidents involving deer there than you know about the beaches of Hatteras.
I and no one else who has posted here wants to see any damage caused to this awesome resource but we appreciate it because we are allowed to use it. We recently began paying for a special fishing license to fish coastal areas. There were complaints but about 5% were about the license, the other 95% were about the fact that the majority of this money will be tapped into for other projects and not used for conservation efforts and habitat improvements as it is earmarked.
The economic impact will stretch hundreds of miles from Hatteras if the resource is closed. Tackle shops from far away will have no customer for a surf rod or a rod spike.
There are two positives from this issue though:
1) The issue is motivating the real protectors of the resource, the outdoors enthusiast who use it.
2) I have been surf fishing seriously for 15 years and I have never joined the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association or the Outer Banks Protection Association but the radical movements of "Conservation" groups have caused me to write the check!
Somebody please post contact info for these two groups for the benefit of myself and other enthusiasts who have been slack. I just hope it's not too late.
One other comment. Relook at the pic of Oregon Inlet on Memorial Day clearly a beautiful holdiday weekend and a "worse case" scenerio for ORV congestion.
Now look to the left of the pic. Nothing but sand. Everything to the inside of the symbolic fencing (stakes with twine ) is off limit of ORVS. Out of sight is a large pond that opens to the Pamlico Sound with a good foraging area. Except for this a narrow strip, the Oregon Inlet spit is reserved for the wildlife.
And it should be easy to image a Nor'easter or a hard Sou'wester (calling for 30-40 mph SW tonight) pushing water up & flooding entire of spit at high tide and rubbing out the ORV tracks.
What is most disappointing about this lawsuit is Superentendent Murray did a wonderful job of balancing the needs for the nesting birds and turtles while allowing access when practical. The ORV groups bought into the process and I heard very little serious complaints.
The plovers did well in spite of the storms and the predation.
Could it be that DOW, Audubon and SELC are afraid that another successful season will show that active and aggressive (and transparent) managment by the NPS under Murray's leadership can balance wildlife protection and ORV access?
But then, this is really not about the birds.
That fox didn't have any kits in the fall/winter. Fox reproduce in the spring. Why the embellishment?
The plover is a native on the entire eastern seaboard and the gulf coast. Cape Lookout is the extreme southern end of its breeding range, not Cape Hatteras. How many plover does Lookout have? North Carolina appears to be the only state in the U.S. with plovers present year-round. Any field guide would show you that.
From reading the injunction request, your favorite exotic and non-native predators are a threat to more than the plover. Funny, it seems to me that if the locals and ORVers would have cooperated in removing the invasive predators, this injunction probably wouldn't be happening, and I wouldn't be wondering about my vacation plans. I was driving through Avon last summer and there were cats running around all over the place. I couldn't believe it. Might as well store nucular waste in the backyard, it's no less detrimental to the environment than a cat running loose outside.
Why go to Cape Point to "protest"? It seems if these extremists had any gonads at all, they would be inside the Federal Courthouse on 4/4 and let the judge know how they feel.
Anonymous,
Just a brief suggestion that may make you life easier in the future.
It is often easier to not sound like a total fool if one knows his / her facts!
In the future it would probably serve you in good stead to know things about what one espouses to have knowledge of!
Below you will find a little jewel plagiarized from the Animal Diversity Web sponsored by the University of Michigan.
"The annual estrous period of female red foxes last from 1 to 6 days. Ovulation is spontaneous and does not require copulation to occur. The exact time of estrous and breeding varies across the broad geographic range of the species: December-January in the south, January-February in the central regions, and February-April in the north. Males will fight during the breeding season. Males have a cycle of fecundity, with full spermatogenesis only occurring from November to March. Females may mate with a number of males but will establish a partnership with only one male. Copulation usually lasts 15 or 20 minutes and is often accompanied by a vocal clamor. Implantation of the fertilized egg occurs between 10 and 14 days after a successful mating. Just before and for a time after giving birth the female remains in or around the den. The male partner will provision his mate with food but does not go into the maternity den. Gestation is typically between 51 and 53 days but can be as short as 49 days or as long as 56 days. Litters vary in size from 1 to 13 pups with an average of 5. Birth weight is between 50 and 150 g. The pups are born blind but open their eyes 9 to 14 days after birth. Pups leave the den 4 or 5 weeks after birth and are fully weaned by 8 to 10 weeks. Mother and pups remain together until the autumn after the birth. Sexual maturity is reached by 10 months."
Our period of estrous may vary 30-60 days here on the outer island and occur any time from mid Oct to mid Jan with actual birth occurring anywhere from early / mid December till late Feb / mid March. I have no idea what the reason behind the variations are but have often speculated that it may be due to the seasonally warmer weather we often have or the appearance of an unexpected cold period in late October.
Tight Lines
Big Red
OK, if you think the locals get special privileges guaranteed to them when the seashore was formed, then let the real locals stand up. Pull out your family trees and if you can prove that you are descended from an Midgett, O'neal, Gillikin, Willis, or one of the 10 or so island families let's give you a special pass to continue to have your right to access the beach. The rest of you "locals" who moved from Jersey or have been coming for vacation for 30 years don't get squat.