Under a presidential order signed more than 35 years ago, the National Park Service was to develop a plan regulating driving on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore on North Carolina's Outer Banks to protect sea turtles and shore birds. But until this week there had been no adequate plan for protecting both the wildlife there and still assuring recreational surf fishing on the beach.
Now there is one, thanks to an agreement among the park service, environmentalists, fishers and local residents who traditionally have driven onto the beaches to fish or otherwise enjoy the magnificence of the seashore. That deal came about after two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society, filed a lawsuit arguing that failure to regulate off-road driving had diminished the bird population significantly.
The settlement was approved by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, who still has questions whether the agreement answers all the questions about protecting the shorebirds. The plan will limit access to certain areas and ban all nighttime driving during nesting seasons for both turtles and birds. Last year that meant nearly 10 miles of the seashore -- about one-sixth of its length -- was off-limits to motor vehicles during nesting seasons. How much will be off-limits this year depends on the bird's choice of nesting grounds. But the plan is to ban driving between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. from May 1 to mid-November when turtle hatchlings crawl from their nests to the water.
Judge Boyle noted in court that the agreement may not go far enough to protect the seashore because it didn't limit the number of vehicles, or even provide a way to count vehicles. "We won't know a year from now whether there are more or less vehicles" on the seashore, he noted.
That's a flaw the parties to the agreement ought to address and not delay until another time. Still, the fashioning of an agreement this close to the summer nesting season is encouraging. Chris Canfield, executive director of Audubon North Carolina, believes it's significant because it should "adequately protect natural resources at Cape Hatteras until a final more comprehensive plan can be agreed upon."
Let's hope he's right.
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Check & Clear 6
LOC: 38-54-14.60N / 097-14-09.07W
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