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Off-Road Vehicle Management Plan
Off-Road Vehicle Management Plan
Executive Order 11644 of 1972 requires federal agencies permitting ORV use on agency lands to make regulations for such use. Due to this Order, the National Park Service (NPS) is developing an Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Management Plan for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area (CHNSRA). The NPS maintains that ORV's must be regulated in a manner that appropriately addresses resource protection—including protected, threatened and endangered species—and potential conflicts among the various CHNSRA users. The NPS has assigned a high priority to the completion of this ORV Plan and subsequent regulations.
Since ORVs are necessary to access many sportfishing areas of the CHNSRA, the concern is that the ORV Plan may give little consideration to economic impacts to any segment of the sportfishing industry and the communities that depend on sportfishing. The implementation of the ORV Plan poses serious questions about the future of recreational fishing in the CHNSRA and presents a serious challenge to sportfishing because:- The ORV Plan could ultimately prevent reasonable access to many of the CHNSRA’s best marine sportfishing areas; The ORV Plan and the various designations made under it is a complex process making it difficult for anglers and the public to understand;Statewide, anglers are not coordinated to oppose large unwarranted ORV restrictions; Environmental groups supporting access closures under the ORV Plan are well-organized; and
- Some angler groups and the public do not realize that surf fishing at the CHNSRA is threatened.
The is currently assisting the NPS in its development of the ORV Management Plan. The Reg-Neg consists of various stakeholders in the CHNSRA, including environmental groups, anglers, business-owners, and tourism organizations, among others, and will be working to reach consensus on issues related to the ORV Plan.
On June 13, 2007, the NPS implemented an Interim Protected Species Management Strategy (Interim Strategy), which underwent the NEPA review process and public comment, to provide adequate protection for resident shorebirds until Negotiated Rulemaking is complete. The first official Reg-Neg meeting was held in Buxton, North Carolina, in early January 2008. This meeting focused on finalizing the committee ground rules and understanding the coinciding economic assessment and evaluation under the National Environmental Policy Act. The second and third meetings focused on identifying the ORV and other issues the RegNeg should concentrate on and how to resolve them.
Public comments at these three Reg-Neg meetings focused on the need to protect beach access and the potential economic impacts of closing large portions of the beach. In subsequent meetings, the Committee has focused on attempting to identify areas in which ORVs would be permitted on the beach, but subject to safety or resource closures, and the science behind some of the resource issues facing the Seashore – specifically protection of the piping plover and other shorebirds in the area. Meetings are ongoing, with several subcommittees meeting over the summer to work on a variety of issues.
Meanwhile, on February 20, 2008, the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society (Plaintiffs) filed an injunction asking that all ORV access, except for essential vehicles, be stopped on the CHNSRA. The Plaintiffs argued that the NPS’s Interim Strategy did not provide adequate protection for area shorebirds. The federal government declined to defend the Interim Plan and entered into settlement negotiations with the Plaintiffs.
In late April 2008, Federal District Judge Terrence Boyle approved a consent decree outlining the details of the settlement agreement, which will remain in effect until the RegNeg Committee has completed its work and the NPS issues a final long term ORV Management Plan in three years. The details of the settlement agreement are extensive and put in place protections for shorebirds that exceed the protections outlined in the Interim Strategy. These protections have resulted in extensive restrictions on ORV access to key surf fishing spots in CHNSRA and an undue economic burden on the local economy.
On June 11, Senators Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) and Representative Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R-NC), introduced legislation (S. 3113 and H.R. 6233) that would set aside the mandates established by the consent decree and reinstate the Interim Strategy until Negotiated Rulemaking is completed. The reinstatement of the Interim Strategy would restore reasonable ORV and pedestrian access to CHNSRA while providing appropriate shorebird and resource protection. Click here to send a letter to your Senators and Representatives requesting their support of S. 3113 and H.R. 6233. *Note – This is a call to action for ALL anglers, not just those from North Carolina. Please show your support for the Hatteras community.
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