| |
Some Facts About the Beach Access Battle
Posted By: jlmann
Date: Thursday, 5-3-12, at 7:36 p.m.
This is from a conversation I had with a former NC resident that worked on Hatteras in the 90's. He was unaware of the current state of access.
"""I'm gonna put it here for everyone else to see. NPS , DOW , SELC , Audobon and others are waging war on the people of Hatteras Island.
The park service was forced to implement a lot of new and unnecessary regulations due to lawsuits by the Audobon Society and the SELC. Remember all the beaches you could drive on? 80% of the 73 miles of beaches is now closed to access for at least some time during any given year. The main culprit is the piping plover , a bird that historically breeds further north and winters further south.
To protect this bird the park service puts up huge beach closures and buffers where you can't even leave footprints on the beach. With no humans on the beach , they are more vulnerable to predators , so the park service traps or shoots anything that threatens the birds - foxes , raccoons , opossums , peoples pets.
There are two good videos on my blog that explain it better than I can. Check them out here : http://www.somefishblog.com/2011/02/orv-access-on-outer-banks.html
You would be really surprised how many businesses have went under since the 90's because a lot of people just won't go to Hatteras when they aren't allowed on the beach.""""
Followed by :
"""It's actually going through congressional hearings now. Just watched part of it the other day and got to see a top brass type guy for the NPS get dressed down by a Senator. He said something like , "This is a recreation area , and that's the only thing that's not allowed. Get your people on the ground to fix it". So I'm hopeful that things might change.
What makes it so bad is that there are actually studies that indicate the birds do better when people are allowed on the beach , because it keeps predators away. According to NPS though , it's better to keep people away and spend money trapping and killing animals to protect 18 birds (even lower this year , I just saw an estimate of 5 pairs). 18 or 10 birds , that's how many call Hatteras home. The other 1500 or so prefer Canadian beaches that are less susceptible to storms and have larger substrate on the beach: ie; pebbles , and coarser sand , less vegetation""""
| |
The Salty Board is maintained by King with WebBBS 5.12.