Hatteras has room for access compromise

Folks like Rob Alderman have been driving right up to the surf on the Outer Banks and casting a fishing line for so many decades that it's become as deeply ingrained in local culture as beach music and barbecue. For too long, though, the tradition has collided with another cherished part of life on the islands: the seashore's natural beauty.

The conflict is headed toward a showdown -- and potential resolution - today. A federal judge is scheduled to hear a request this afternoon by the National Audubon Society and Defenders of Wildlife for an injunction designed to keep SUVs, pickups and other vehicles farther away from critical habitats for piping plovers, American oyster catchers, loggerhead turtles and other vulnerable species until the National Park Service develops a management plan for off-road vehicles.

The plan is woefully late. President Nixon signed an executive order in 1972 calling for rules that would allow continued use of ORVs in some federal parks if they honored "wise land and resource management practices, environmental values and other types of recreational activity." But a plan was never adopted for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, largely because of federal neglect and excessive deference to local opponents.

Environmentalists are now pushing for a long-term plan, based on recommendations by Park Service scientists, that would close stretches of the shoreline on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands to ORV traffic all or part of the year. While the plan is being drafted, they want six popular fishing areas -- roughly 12 percent of the park's shoreline - closed to vehicles immediately to try to begin reversing steep declines in shorebird populations in the past 10 years.

There's undoubtedly room for negotiating the exact boundaries of the beach-driving ban. But it's difficult to argue credibly, after 35-plus years of government inaction and ORV domination of the beach, that the proposed restrictions are rash, radical or meritless.

Alderman, a Buxton resident and leader in the battle to preserve ORV access, is content with the Park Service's recently adopted interim plan. It sets aside smaller stretches of shoreline if and when vulnerable birds and turtles appear.

Like other ORV drivers, Alderman suspects environmentalists are angling for a broader ban against ORVs and even pedestrians. He warns of a big downturn in tourism and contends that shorebirds are plentiful on nearby dredge islands, outside park boundaries.

However, Derb Carter, a Southern Environmental Law Center attorney who's working on the case, says conservationists have no intention of parking ORVs permanently or banning pedestrians. "We certainly recognize that the traditions, particularly recreational fishing in that area, are deep," he says. "We believe a plan can be developed that allows those traditional uses to continue and protects the birds and other natural resources."

The National Park Service isn't supporting the injunction but acknowledges in court filings that "ORV use is unauthorized at the Seashore in the absence of a special regulation designating ORV routes and areas."

In that light, it appears likely an injunction will be granted. But a short-term closure doesn't mean ORV users and advocates of a stricter management plan have to remain bitter adversaries.

Although the debate has been contentious, leaders on both sides have -- at various times -- expressed a willingness to work on a compromise that serves the interests of both man-made and natural traditions. At the end of today's court hearing, that spirit of cooperation should be renewed.