BUXTON
All that was missing was the coolers of drinks and sandwiches. But the congenial party atmosphere at Cape Point on Saturday morning belied the sense of desperation felt by off-road-vehicle drivers who assembled there to make a statement – literally.
Volunteers, equipped with two-way radios, guided the first wave of the estimated 600 vehicles into a giant formation of words that spelled “PLEASE HELP US!!!”
The orchestrated plea was a reaction to a pending showdown in a long-running legal battle between environmentalists and proponents of ORV access on Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
“We want to keep this island open,” said Luther Emory, a Raleigh resident who has been coming to fish on the Outer Banks for about 40 years. “This makes no sense just for a few birds.”
The National Audubon Society and the Defenders of Wildlife have asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction against beach driving at Cape Point and six other prime fishing spots along the seashore.
The environmental groups contend that the National Park Service lacks an adequate ORV management plan to protect shorebirds.
A hearing is to be held April 4 in Raleigh.
Over the years, there have been flare-ups of contention over beach closures, but the pending legal action is the most serious threat beach drivers have faced to continued use of the beach, especially at the prime fishing spots.
If access was restricted, proponents say, the Outer Banks would take a big hit economically and would suffer from the loss of a beloved cultural tradition.
“We want to save it for our children, too,” said Eddie Hyman, 53, a Camden resident. “My daddy brought me down here as a child. When I was 14, 15, 16, you could drive from the state line all the way to Hatteras Inlet.”
Hyman choked up as he talked about the pleasure he gets from his regular visits to The Point, often shared with his college-age daughter.
“It would break my heart to ever lose this privilege,” he said.
A smaller rally also was held at The Point two weeks ago, but it was defeated by ugly weather. Saturday’s soft breezes and comfortable temperatures made for perfect conditions.
While the 1,500 or so people waited for a plane to fly over to take aerial photographs, they mingled on the beach and discussed the pending court date.
Children and d ogs frolicked among the rows of vehicles, many flying U.S. flags and a pirate flag or two. Despite the activity, seagulls and sanderlings went about their business on the beach, steering clear as necessary, with the bolder gulls being oblivious.
Vinnie, a cream-colored golden retriever, barked nervously as he pranced on the sand, as several other dogs visited back and forth.
“He’s saying, 'Save our beach,’” Vinnie’s owner, Carl Berg, said, playfully scratching his dog.
But he confessed that he was very worried. “I might move off this island if they closed this beach.”
Behind him on South Beach, five horses cantered along the shoreline. Astride her horse Biscuit, Karen Robert, a resident of Hatteras village, said she rides at Cape Point once or twice a week.
But if it were shut down, the horses would be as restricted as would recreational vehicles.
“It’s paradise,” she said about The Point. “I don’t think people even believe it’s going to happen.”
Rally organizer Rob Alderman said that’s the reason he put the word out to everyone who uses the beach on the islands – surfers, beachcombers, kiteboarders, wind surfers, swimmers, fishers.
“I saw just about every state on the Eastern Seaboard represented here today,” he said after the rally. But the large crowd by no means represented a typical day at Cape Point, he said, or any other beach access point on the islands.
The Park Service had issued a permit for the event, which Alderman said by all accounts was trouble-free.
And that’s what, Alderman said, he told the park ranger who checked up on them.
“Hey, man,” he recounted, smiling. “I hate to break your heart, but I didn’t give you nothing to do today.”
Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com
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Re: Beach driving
As someone who has driven the beaches for 25 years, I have yet to see any harm done to any shore birds or sea turtles.
Those of you who are against beach use by motor vehicles, you remind me of Vladimir Lenin's useful idiots. The useful idiots were Journalists and "Intellectuals" of the west who turned a blind eye on the excesses of the former USSR.
Our government is slowly becoming an oligarchy fueled by big money environmentalist extremist groups.
Just wait until you can no longer drive on the beach, there is already talk of closing the beach to pedestrians.
When the sea finally takes the Bonner Bridge, and the big environmentalist groups delay it's replacement for decades through frivolous lawsuits, you can park your Volvo at a checkpoint at Whalebone junction, stand tall in your birkenstocks take out your bird spotting glasses and congratulate yourself on destroying a way of life for thousands of people.
Please help us! My husband
Please help us!
My husband and I retired to Hatteras Island to live our 'Golden Years' in a place we love. We worked for many years to achieve this dream. We volunteer with the National Park Service, participate with user groups doing beach cleanup and maintenance, and I make quilts for charity or to raffle to provide money for educational scholarships.
Our daughters and now our grandchildren have vacationed with us here on Hatteras Island for years. My young grandson overcame his fear of the water at South Beach. A small pond develops there in the summer and is an ideal place for young children to frolic in salt water. A short walk away is Cape Point-the premier surf fishing spot on the East coast and close by the shallows where some of the older children can learn to boogie board. It is a spot for youngsters, and fishermen, even Grams and Grandpa. It is a place for families to enjoy the beach and make memories. On April 3rd. it may be closed to ORV access. The only limited parking is two miles away-not possible for young people or fishermen carrying gear, umbrellas, coolers, or seniors with arthritic knees to traverse.
We watch the fishermen in the rental cottages on our stree
ORV use on Cape Hatteras
We have been going to Hatteras Island for 30 years, because we are able to drive on the beach to reach our fishing destinations. It would be impossible to walk from the parking lot to these, considering the distances. However, do people realize that if ORV use is banned, pedestrian traffic will also be banned? We do not trash the beach, we observe the driving laws, and we do not walk or drive on the dunes or designated wildlife areas. This should be indicative that the Park Service does have an ORV and pedestrian traffic plan in place. If the beaches are closed to ORV use, we WILL cancel our vacation reservations and WILL NOT renew our non-resident fishing licenses. If the injunction is passed and others follow our follow suit, maybe we can overturn the judges decision.
Where to get info
Jimh20.
Be sure to check out the Island Free Press. IMHO it has the best, most timely and unbiased info available on the issue.
http://www.islandfreepress.org/
There are different types of beach users
For those of you commenting on the types of beach users and throwing everyone into the same pot just goes to show that some of you have nothing to base your comments on. You simply can not compare people to visit Sandbridge Beach to those to visit the Outer Banks and spend their vacations driving on the beach. They are two completely different people. Yes, those people at Sandbridge do leave their trash on the beach and are rude and are simply there to park their rears on the sand. Those people who drive on the beaches at the Outerbanks for the vast majority are decent people who are their for recreation, excercise, entertainment, and for the scenery. They stay off of the dunes and only drive where designated, you can't say that much about those sandbridge tourists. Then there is the issue about environmental impact and anyone who has an oceanfront condo, who tear down the dunes to build their condos, and who want more condos are far more dangerous to the environment on the beaches than any amount of vehicles on the Outerbanks. Lastly, I'd like to comment about the "redneck" comments. I think to lump everyone who drives on the beach a redneck is unfair to us rednecks.
"Messages" by Xavier Rudd
So please beware
With every place that you had
Look to your soul
For these things that you know
For the trees that we see
Can not forever breathe
With the changes they will confront
You know some people they just won't understand
no I just won't understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don't understand
no I just won't understand
These things
For this sacred land
It has seen many hands
It has wealth and gold
Yet it is fragile and old
And all the "greedy souls"
Just don't care to know
Of the changes it will confront
So speak out loud
Of the things you are proud
And if you love this coast
Then keep it clean as it hopes
'Cause the way that it shines
May just dwindle with time
With the changes it will confront
Xavier rudd
save the earth save ourselves
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r8p9viwp4hA
Closure Myths, continued
Quite simply, there is no scientific evidence that ORVs are adversely impacting wildlife. In the absence of such evidence, it is unconscionable for anyone to deny the general public access to “public lands.”
ORV use on Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke Island
We have vacationing on the Outer Banks with our two sons and other assorted family members since the early 1980's and driving on the beach for twenty years. We are a surfing/birding/shell collecting/learning to fish/environmentally aware family and we respect all the turtle and bird restricted areas established by the National Park Service as do most people we encounter on the beach. In twenty years we have seen one person drive on a dune and we promptly reported him.
We have been following this disturbing situation from Baltimore through the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association website ( www.ncbba.org ) and the Outer Banks Preservation Association ( www.opba.org ) since last July but the attempt to ban beach driving has been brewing for a long time. Cape Hatteras was established as a recreation area and is not a wildlife preserve though the so called "environmentalists" would have it otherwise. We consider this a tragedy.
A ban on beach driving would devastate the economies of the villages on both islands and ruin the lives of the families who live there. Most people who visit the Outer Banks do so because they can access specific areas of the beach in off road vehicles
Closure Myths
The requested closures are much more than 12%. At the Mar. reg. neg. meeting, the NPS reported that the requested closures accounted for 10 of the 25 miles available on typical summer day. Isn’t that 40%?
Next, with respect claims that the issue is birds vs. ORVs, consider the following counts of nesting shorebirds:
· 1999 -- 1,155 pairs,
· 2000 -- 465 pairs,
· 2004 -- 964 pairs, and
· 2007 -- 217 pairs plus several hundred pairs that nested on the newly created Cora June Island.
The above figures to not represent a trend but rather wild fluctuations. Furthermore, consider the following statements regarding the effectiveness of the current plan 1) USFWS issued a no jeopardy opinion and stated that the implemention may improve habitat for nesting shorebirds, and 2) NPS issued a finding of no significant impact.
Finally, with respect to the many inferences that ORVs are not necessary, consider the following. Visitation peaked in 2002 at nearly 3 million visitors. Since that time the size and duration of closures have been increasing at a steady rate. During that same period, visitation has declined to approximately 2 million.
Quite simply, there is
greenturtlebird
I'd like to know how driving on the beach disrupts beach ecology? Perhaps you could explain this.
Compromise
Compromise was brought up and I know first hand that we have been compromising for years. We have closures for the birds and respect them. There are many areas off limits to everyone now and more will come when the nesting birds move in. It's the enviro's who don't want to compromise IMO.
any effort we can make to
any effort we can make to keep trash out of our seas should be supported, watch this link about plastic in our oceans, there is a trash collection in the pacific doldrums that is twice the size of texas
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QJvifVrGi8o
Bike
Even though I ride my bike, I (unlike some so-called environmentalists) never complained about ORVs on the beach. I grew up learning it was the tradition. So, I may ride my bike, but you are welcomed to take your SUV.
automobiles do not belong on
automobiles do not belong on the beach, it disrupts the entire beach ecology all they way down to the microbes in the sand, it isn't conducive to a responsible beach management plan, they should figure out ways to make walking to beach more accessible, the environment and the way it turns out for our kids depends on what we do today, don't let anyone downplay the severity of the current crisis we face with the coming catastrophe, the environment issue is the single most important thing humanity faces beside nuclear annihilation, the answers BLOWIN IN THE WIND
Accuracy
Rogerj is an example of the uninformed that were mislead by the 12%. Even on the best of days in the off season with no seasonal village, pedestrian beach and wildlife closures not all beach is open to driving. The 12 % refers to the total beach of about 75 miles not just that available to driving.
For example today the following areas are closed year round to driving.
Ramp 1 to Ramp 2
All of Pea Island
Just South of Ramp 38 to just North of Ramp 43
Just South of Ramp 49 to just North of Ramp 55
Just South of Ramp 59 to Just North of Ramp 67
Between 15 May and 15 Sep the following are closed to driving as well
Coquina Beach area
The area in front of the villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo and Avon
The area between Ramp 67 and Ramp 70
At the recent REG-NEG meeting NPS presented a handout showing that on 14 Aug 2007 only about 25 miles of the 75 were open to driving.
If the injunction as requested were also in effect on 14 Aug about another 10 miles would have been closed to driving.
The SELC press release you read was in my opinion purposely designed to mislead the uninformed. You do the math.
I'm really getting tired of
I'm really getting tired of being painted as a redneck because I like to drive my vehicle out to the beach. Not to throw off on the rednecks, because they are probably all alright folks, but I am about as far from being a redneck as there is in the world. I am a college educated, self employed business owner with college educated children. My vehicle is a brand new Suburban. My old beach vehicle was a Suburban. It doesn't leak or make any messes, I don't leave trash, and we don't have a beer guzzling throw down. We drive out to the beach with our children and some chairs, we are lazy- yes- because we are on vacation! We read, watch the waves, enjoy the fellowship of others, and if we're lucky, catch a few fish! We clean up all of our trash, and usually others' trash. And by the way, if you want to see trashy beaches- just go to the beaches where ORV's are banned and see what happens to people's trash when they have to walk in. Usually they leave it there!
And btw...it's 12% of the currently open beach. Not 13% of the whole. It's actually something like 30-40% of what is now open to ORV's.
Excuse me for stereotyping
I apologize for my insensitive "redneck" comment. I do still believe, however that migratory species should take precedence over the wishes of surf fishing enthusiasts. The Department of the Interior during the Bush administration has made a mockery of endangered species protection. The sooner he and his cronies are gone the sooner the U.S. can get back to it's long tradition of conservation. Thanks, TR - my kind of Republican.
Poll
The poll regarding this story has been corrected and reposted:
Click here to vote.
It amazes me....
It always seems that those who support Banning ORV's from the beach have to resort to name calling.
Are those in opposition to vehicles on the beach incapable of having intelligent conversations on the matter?
Wait I already knew the answer to that question.
I drive an ORV and I frequent the Cape Hatteras Seashore Recreational Area.
If those, who have filed suit to ban ORV's from the park get their way, Then you, who prefer to walk and you, who likes to ride your bike will not be allowed to access the beach AT ALL. Let me say that again.
In order to protect the wildlife and allow it to be unencumbered by human presence No ORV's, No Pets and no People will be allowed in to the area.
Before you criticize and belittle, do your homework. There's a lot more at stake here than just "rednecks drinking, trashing and driving on the beach".
I think you'll find that the majority of people who access the beach with ORV's are the best stewards.
It's just amazing to me how far some people will go to show their complete ignorance of an issue so important and all the while claiming to be the best informed, thus best qualified to decide what is best for us all.
Poor wording of poll
I just saw the poll on this issue. I want to add a corection. Beach driving is ALREADY BANNED in sensitive areas of the seashore and should continue to be so. The question should read "Should beach driving be banned in areas now permitted to do so?"