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Interior Department To Be Sued Over Cape Hatteras National Seashore Plover Habitat Decisions

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A lawsuit is being promised over U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decisions to designate critical winter habitat for piping plover on Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Photo by Alan Pitt.

Interior Department officials have been notified that a lawsuit will be forthcoming over decisions to designate critical habitat for piping plover at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
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The notification[/url] was sent to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall on Tuesday. Filed by the Washington, D.C., law firm of Holland and Knight, the notice was lodged on behalf of the North Carolina counties of Dare and Hyde, as well as the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance, a non-profit that represents, among others, the interests of surf anglers and beach buggy enthusiasts.

If you've been paying attention in recent months, you'll recognize that this fight revolves around decisions to close portions of Cape Hatteras National Seashore to vehicle and pedestrian access to protect species protected under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

In the notice, the groups claim U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials violated the ESA, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act, in their decisions to declare critical winter habitat for the plovers on both the national seashore and nearby Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The agency's actions, says the notice, "have caused, presently are causing, and will foreseeably continue to cause, substantial harm and adverse impacts to CHAPA's members, the counties, and the thousands of people who rely on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore for their livelihood and recreation."

In addition to claiming FWS officials violated "mandatory, non-discretionary duties under the ESA," the groups say the designation of the critical habitat is unnecessary "in light of ongoing management under the seashore's Interim Plan."

The bottom line, maintain the groups, is that the critical habitat designation should be lifted and that the seashore and wildlife refuge be recognized as exempt from such designations.

Summary of Claims

• The FWS should have excluded the seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge from critical habitat designation because the benefits of exclusion outweighed the benefits of designation.

• The FWS should have excluded the seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge from critical habitat designation because the Interim Plan meets the FWS's exclusion requirements.

• The environmental assessment makes clear that the costs of designating critical habitat at the seashore and Pea Island outweigh the benefits.

• The economic analysis is still deficient. It arbitrarily relies on the discredited Vogelsong study and fails to adequately discuss "the effects of the designation on everyone who might be affected" as directed by Judge Lamberth.

• The FWS fails to satisfy Judge Lamberth's direction that FWS must adequately address how each identified primary constituent element would need management or protection

• The FWS has still failed to comply with NEPA. The FWS's Environmental Assessment contains virtually no science and does not address the extensive scientific data and analysis that CHAPA and the Counties submitted through their environmental consultant.

• The FWS has been arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act. The FWS record fails to make a "rational connection between the facts found and the choice made."

Comments

d-2, you paint a really nasty picture of what you must think the seashore is becomeing. I live here and that's not how I see it at all.

"For "EVERYONE" even if it means the destruction of the very special qualities that caused the creation (for "EVERYONE") of the National Seashore in the first place?"
What destruction are you talking about?

"Maybe "EVERYONE" is beginning to realize America is not so big that it can any longer afford to let its resources be abused, poluted, and twisted beyond recongition for the thrill and diversions of a "FEW"
Polluted ? Twisted beyond recognition ? Have you ever even been here ?
We had an intermin plan with closures as needed. It worked and we coexhisted with the wildlife. The enviromentalist's are the special interest groups who want it all their way. As far as polution, I never see any enviro groups participating in any clean-up efforts in the park and the most trash I ever see on the beaches are on the ones that are closed to all humans.


I have always loved being at Hatteras. It feels to me like some of the wildest country in America. Somebody's loud, poluting ATV is destructive and out of place.


Have you really been on the Islands?
ATV's are not allowed.
Jet skis are also banned.


Have you really been to the Islands?
ATV's are not allowed.
Jet skis are also banned.


We are talking about the same vehicles, as they are at Hatteras. Where I am from, we call them ATVs. Although it is true, if what you are saying is that all Off Road Vehicles are not All Terrain Vehicles, and vice versa.

The point is no vehicles, 2 cycle or 4 cycle, should be allowed to impair the habitat and the resource.


Everone = taxpaying Amercians All are welcome at Cape Hatteras it,s the few who want to take it away


This issue has been dictated by egos and money and plain ole personal gain by people that have no clue as to the history, area, and people that live there. It was promised as recreational, created and designated as recreational, and yet law suits are being fought over something that has already been designated as recreational.
The redundency here is appalling and quite insulting to the families and businesses that used to thrive in the area. The idea that here in the United States where freedom is being fought for and defended in foreign countries and not being allowed by our own citizenry is dictactorship in the making. For one group to say how and when and where and what anyone should do IS dictatorship and should be avoided at all costs. Cohabitation between the people and wildlife had been going on without much to-do about it until government and special interest started blurring the lines. It is sad indeed to see that several good attempts to establish a good thing for all has been turned into an all out showdown between those who would dictate to the American public how they should live and keep their own backyard and hard working honest people who just want their own backyard to be kept how they have known it most of their lives, free. Free to access, free to roam without restrictions, free to drive, to fish, and to enjoy. Amen!


D-2 your posts lead me to believe that you have no first hand or other actual experience in Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Recreation Area.

If where you come from you lump everything together as being an "all terrain vehicle" where you come from must be a terribly misguided place. An "off road vehicle" is simply a vehicle that can go some places other than roads, but by no stretch of the imagination everywhere. Overwhelmingly these are the same "family cars" that people use on an everyday basis to commute to work or drive the family places, there simply aren't packs "Yahoos" running all over the park in "ATV's" tearing things up. That type of activity only exists in the minds of enviro extremist types like yourself.

Another thing those like yourself who draw their conclusions from a few media reports, usually based on a press release from one of the environmental groups; is when you see numbers regarding the "miles" of beach open to ORV's VS. miles closed you must keep in mind that A LINE CONTAINS NO AREA. You have to realize that many of those "miles" are actually little more than narrow corridors, kind of like a "road" and are used to access places for RECREATION like swimming fishing and surfing. In relation to the total acres in the park an incredibly small amount of area is actually open to ORV traffic.

Another point you might consider is your use of the term "resource". Perhaps you should look up the definition: 1 a: a source of supply or support : an available means —usually used in plural b: a natural source of wealth or revenue —often used in plural c: a natural feature or phenomenon that enhances the quality of human life.

Enhances the quality of human life? Hmm, wouldn't that mean if we don't make some use of it, it's not a resource? So when they place all the signs and string barriers up banning all human activity within an area THAT IS DESTROYING THE RESOURCE. Parks are for people, the resources need to be managed to ensure their continued existence, THAT is what has been going on in this seashore. It's the environmental groups that have taken management of our parks into the courts and wasted billions of dollars.

You may also wish to note that "wintering habitat" rules and closures would start each year in JULY!


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