http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1605849/
Which is total B.S.Hatteras — A federal judge has put an immediate stop to all beach driving on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
In an order filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle said the National Park Service, the Department of Interior and towns along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore need to create an off-road vehicle plan for the beaches
This ruling had many beachgoers upset. There was talk about a potential for a lawsuit by enviromentalist extremists to enforce the Judges ruling.Until that happens, off-road vehicle driving is banned from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse north to Oregon Inlet and south to Ocracoke.
Cape Hatteras park officials, however, are not enforcing the order while they try to get an interpretation of Boyle's ruling.
Some areas on the beach are closed because of wildlife sanctuaries, which have nothing to do with the order, Seashore Superintendent Mike Murray said. And there are enforceable regulations prohibiting motorists from driving on sand dunes, speeding and driving drunk.
Well, now that summer is over and 90 percent of the beachgoers are involved in their own lives... not the situation at the beaches, they struck.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.c ... 8&ran=6874
Environmental groups sue over Cape Hatteras beach driving
By CATHERINE KOZAK, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 19, 2007
Last updated: 9:57 PM
The long-standing controversy over beach driving in Cape Hatteras National Seashore has gotten more loaded with a lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday by two environmental groups.
The Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, contend in the action that the National Park Service has failed to adequately protect resources in the 30,000 acres of the park by allowing off-road vehicle use under an interim management plan.
Beach driving under the plan has dramatically affected sensitive species, the complaint states, and the activity is poorly regulated.
"Specifically, the defendants have continued to allow virtually unfettered ORV use to continue in the seashore all during the summer of 2007," the lawsuit said.
The environmental groups say ORV - which stands for off- road vehicle - mismanagement bears much of the blame for the near disappearance of gull-billed terns and common terns at the seashore. The numbers of black skimmers, least terns, American oystercatchers and piping plovers have also declined dramatically.
An executive order 35 years ago required the park to institute an ORV management plan. The interim plan has been in place since July.
But Jim Keene, president of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association, said that a team of stakeholders is ready to start negotiations to develop a long-term ORV management plan.
The plaintiffs are members of the negotiated rule-making team, and the third workshop is scheduled for Monday.
"It's very hard for me to understand how they could possibly negotiate in good faith when the stance they've taken is opposed to beach driving," Keene said in a telephone interview. "Why they've done it at this point, I don't know."
Derb Carter, director of the law center's Carolinas office, said Thursday that time is crucial after the abysmal results of the 2007 bird nesting season.
"So unless immediate actions are taken, we could lose those species from the seashore," he said. "We have been waiting for years for the park service to develop a plan."
Carter said the intention of the lawsuit is not to have beach driving banned; it's to address the impact the current plan is having on the seashore's birds, plants and turtles.
It comes after a court ruling in July by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle which said that since the park did not have ORV regulations in place, it was a violation to operate a motor vehicle without prior authority.
The park superintendent addressed the judge's concerns in a response but declined to tell rangers to issue tickets to beach drivers.
Of the seashore's 65 miles of beach, about 52 miles are open to drivers, minus temporary or seasonal closures, Keene said. According to the lawsuit, ORV use in 2006 numbered about 2,200 per day. Much of that was in optimal breeding and nesting areas such as Cape Point and Hatteras Spit, he said.
Thursday's complaint did not ask for an injunction that would immediately close the beaches to off-road traffic.
Also Thursday, the environmental groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the park service over what they contend have been violations of the federal Endangered Species Act in the seashore.
Allen Burrus, a Dare County commissioner who is a native of Hatteras village, said the legal action struck him as a "ploy."
"I think their motives are to try to stop the whole negotiated rule-making process," he said. "I think they'd rather push them in court. It makes it difficult for us sitting at the table to trust them."
Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Mike Murray was unavailable for comment Thursday, his assistant Cyndy Holda said.
But Holda, the park's community liaison, said the park service intends to continue with the development of the long-term ORV management plan through the negotiated rule-making process.
"This is just one of the many wrinkles in this issue," she said. "We expected a few bumps in the road. It's unfortunate in the timing of this. But we will keep moving the process forward."
