Hatteras beach-driving deal stuck in the sand

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C.

Months of deciphering charts, reading reports and listening to impassioned statements from every side have failed to yield consensus on beach driving in Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Early Thursday evening, the 29-member committee negotiating an agreement on a long-term off-road vehicle management plan in the national park threw in the towel.

"We've recognized that we're not going to be able to resolve the differences," National Park Service Outer Banks Superintendent Mike Murray said after the meeting at Wright Brothers National Memorial. "There were so many inter related issues that were contingent on something else.

"So there was this constantly shifting landscape.... I can't speak for everybody else, but my guess is that nobody could see a way forward."

The panel had included watermen, business owners, conservationists, public officials, property owners and recreational beach users. It had been meeting since 2007 in an attempt to reach compromises on several complex issues.

The Park Service had asked for the committee to agree on an alternative by January. Now, Murray said, he will develop a plan without the committee's recommendation.

"Although we are very disappointed with the outcome of the negotiated rule-making, we cannot give up," said

Warren Judge, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners and a committee member, in a prepared statement. "Our residents, visitors and business community all depend on open and accessible beaches."

Full consensus had proved too elusive, but the meetings were ultimately valuable, said Jason Rylander, a committee member and an attorney with Defenders of Wildlife, as he packed up his laptop.

"I think we were able to share a lot of perspectives," he said. "There was movement on both sides from the beginning."

Joined by the National Audubon Society, Defenders had sued the Park Service just before the meetings began, contending that the interim ORV management plan did not protect the shorebirds and sea turtles adequately.

The lawsuit was settled in April by a consent decree between the environmental groups and the defendants, which included Dare and Hyde counties and a coalition of beach-driving groups.

"It became clear that consensus would be difficult because of a few who were unwilling to compromise in any way," Larry Hardham, a committee member and president of the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club, said in the statement. "The lawsuit... started the destruction of good faith negotiations."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com