A New Rule Balances Wildlife and Off-Road-Vehicle Use on a North Carolina Beach
Comments
That would be dune to the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2012/07/03 - 9:46am.
That would be dune to the tideline (darn iPhone)
Pedestrian Access
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2012/06/28 - 6:43am.
" A Bad Bill for Pedestrian Access"
What the ORV groups don't want you to know is the Interim plan is short for the Interim Protected Species Management Plan (IPSMP). The Interim plan was designed to deal just with protecting and managing protected species and ORVs until a comprehensive ORV plan could be developed. The Interim Plan did not manage where ORV routes would be, the safety of pedestrians, recreational conflicts with ORV use, or safe operation of ORVs. Those things were decided in an exhaustive development plan where extensive public comments were used to decide the final rule.
If the bill passes the Senate and the Interim plan is reinstated it will all but eliminate the established pedestrian access only areas in CHNS. This is because the management of pedestrians and ORVs under the Interim Plan defers to a 1978 draft interim ORV plan that was never approved. This draft plan has been interpreted by different superintendents using the CFR (code of federal regulations) and Superintendent Orders. There was no written plan with public input to manage ORVs. There is little administrative history as to what beaches allowed ORV use and what beaches did and most importantly why some beaches did not allow ORV access for over 30 years.
Management of ORVs will be directed by this morphed 1978 never approved draft interim plan. It is hard to say how ORVs will be managed under the "Interim Plan". There will be no guarantee of year round pedestrian access only beaches. Visitors seeking beaches without tire ruts , parked vehicles and an ORV route that extends from the base of the dune to the tide line will soon be out of luck.
If the Interim plan is used to manage ORVs for CHNS then CHNS will be without an ORV plan. This will be in defiance of a Federal Judge's orders. It is possible all ORV use could be banned in CHNS if this bill is passed.
The constant complaint about the economic consequence of the NEPA approved ORV Management plan is a red herring. Dare county has just released the economy indicators for the County which include Hatteras Island. It appears the only correlation that can be made is that visitors are adjusting to the Park's new management plan and the economic news is very favourable for Hatteras Island.
If you support multiple recreation opportunities, see value in desolate beach seascapes and value resource conservation please consider calling or writing your senator and the members of the energy committee and ask them to vote no on, S. 2372, the Preserving Public Access to Cape Hatteras Beaches Act. Don't be mislead this issue is about ORV access not local economics or pedestrian access.
Link to energy committee:
http://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form
Link to senate contact:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=WA
Dare economic report
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2012/06/28 - 6:17am.
Dare Economic report is available through the chamber of commerce. The numbers don't support economic collapse for Hatteras island . Only the Tri- villages which suffered catastrophic damage from last the last hurricane (that is still being repaired) economic numbers were down.
Please refer to, Dare County Gross Occupancy By District, chart to compare data for the actual villages on HI.
Here is the link .
http://www.outerbankschamber.com/clientuploads/Economy%20Reports/economi...
We have a rental house in Frisco and out yearly rentals are great.
it seems interesting thanks
Submitted by Buy Kratom (not verified) on Wed, 2012/09/19 - 8:16am.
it seems interesting thanks for this update.
Hatteras ecomony in trash can
Submitted by Chuck Allison (not verified) on Wed, 2012/06/27 - 11:04am.
To say that the hatteras island economy is doing fine is an outright lie.... I started going to hatterAs island shortly after returning from southeast Asia , about 1966. My family and bought land and built a house which we rent to visitors on a weekly basis. In the last five years, our house usage has gone down 70% , With this year so far looking to be the worse ever. The total lack of real time data and constant lies from the Eco-nazi groups is a true disgrace. The title of the park is "The Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Recreational Area". It does not say Wildlife Refruge". recreation for ALL the people......
Hatteras ecomony in trash can
Submitted by Chuck Allison (not verified) on Wed, 2012/06/27 - 11:04am.
To say that the hatteras island economy is doing fine is an outright lie.... I started going to hatterAs island shortly after returning from southeast Asia , about 1966. My family and bought land and built a house which we rent to visitors on a weekly basis. In the last five years, our house usage has gone down 70% , With this year so far looking to be the worse ever. The total lack of real time data and constant lies from the Eco-nazi groups is a true disgrace. The title of the park is "The Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Recreational Area". It does not say Wildlife Refruge". recreation for ALL the people......
the beach closures...
Submitted by Karleen (not verified) on Wed, 2012/06/27 - 2:20am.
It's disappointing how sarcastic and nasty many comments are. Unfortunately, the Audubon article opens with hyperbole, which sets the tone. I've been vacationing in Hatteras for almost 20 years, but I've never seen a destructive path of eggs smashed under ORV tires, nor a beautiful blooming nature resurgance. Hatteras is always beautiful, full of wildlife, and full of people who love to be outdoors.
It appears the National Park Service did allow public comment on the new ORV policy, but as HatterasKeith points out, there appears to be no scientific explanation for the recent decline of plovers, and especially no particular link to ORVs. (What I've read is that plovers were mostly wiped out by hunters at the turn of the previous century, and that the overall population has increased since '91, long before this latest mess...).
It's hard to understand why half the shoreline is now effectively closed to any access. Particularly when, driving down the main highway, you're often just yards away from the protected bird nesting sites, since the islands are so narrow. I'm having a hard time understanding what plants are being saved also. If you see pre-Depression pictures of the islands, you'll realize that the long narrow sections were just sand spits. A WPA project created dunes, and everyone today knows to stay out of them to preserve some wave protection. The Pea Island Wildlife sanctuary, which has a lot of vegetation, is already protected.
Another odd thing is that no one mentions the cats. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of them, on the islands. The idea that leashing a few pet dogs will solve the animal problem seems questionable. A local group works to neuter feral cats on the islands, which seems a better approach.
Writing this I've been tempted to dive into the hyperbole, anger, and nastiness myself.But we need to figure out a way forward. Audubon could do better by being more transparent about their funding and causes, by getting better informed about the islands as well as the birds, and by being more inclusive in their approach.
You may not like ORVs. You may not even like to see a single person on a beach where you bird watch. But if Audubon has any interest in the actual birds themselves, it would pay to do a little more listening and research.
Karleen is mistaking the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2012/06/27 - 9:58pm.
Karleen is mistaking the market hunting of terns, egrets, and herons that took place at the turn of the last century with studies published in peer-reviewed journals that show that Piping Plovers nesting in areas that have corridors for beach-driving fledge half as many chicks as those that are closed to beach driving. Piping Plovers were not a target of market hunters. Further, the NPS's own data shows declines in nesting birds, particularly since 2000. HatterasKeith, like many of the other negative commenters here, is just being dishonest. Studies have linked beach driving to declines in productivity.
As for feral cats, neutering and re-releasing them does not solve the problem, as they are still free to predate native wildlife. However, if cats do not find colonies (particularly if nesting areas are far enough away from human habitations where food is more available), they do not impact nesting birds. Of course, when they do get into a colony, they kill adults and chicks, and of course they kill other species of birds and small mammals.
Dogs are a different matter. Any four-legged animal looks like the the birds' natural mammalian predators. When nesting birds see a dog--and dogs are very visible on a beach and are most often on the beach during the day, with their owners--they flush off their eggs or chicks, at greater distances than they do when a human without a dog approaches. When birds are flushed off their eggs even for less than 20 minutes, they can overheat and the embryo developing inside fails. High temperatures are also lethal to young chicks that can't yet thermoregulate for themselves. That is why dogs and nesting birds are a bad mix.
Beach driving can impact birds and sea turtles in graphic ways--crushed chicks and eggs and even the adult sea turtle--and the chicks are so small that in the multitude of tire ruts left behind on a beach where driving takes place, bodies can easily go unfound. But what is more dangerous, and what does not leave behind a gory scene is the toll that high levels of disturbance takes on nesting birds. It can cause colony abandonment, lethal temperature stress, or prevent the birds from nesting in otherwise suitable habitat in the first place.
None of this is new to science. Peer-reviewed studies quantifying the effects of disturbance are easily found. A good place to start is http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/about.php.
I'm sorry, but Audubon is perfectly well informed.
all based on the best
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2012/06/24 - 4:29pm.
all based on the best available science...
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Beach access
Pat I get out of the house a lot.
Here are a list of nice beaches you can walk on without ruts unless S. 2372 is passed.
1. Beach in front of Hallover (Canadian Hole)
2 Beach N of ramp 43 the old loran road all the way to the Hallover with a 2 huge parking lots and easy access at the old lighthouse site.
3. The bath house in Frisco, showers and bathroom easy wooden boardwalk to beach.
4. Sandy Bay parking lot on the soundside just outside Hatteras, easy walk across street to a boardwalk
That is not counting the 1000's of visitors that everyday walk out of their rental cottage over the subdivision boardwalk to the beach, some subdivision are less restrictive than others as far as parking access, none of them will say a word if you are walking there.
There are lots of places to park on the side of highway 12 and easy, no more than a big city mall walk for you to get to the beach if you ask around.