Panel abandons effort on N.C. beach-driving plan

It came to down to deadlines and exhaustion and, some think, beating a dead horse that was doomed at the starting gate.

For 14 months, a group of diverse people committed countless hours to trying to reach a consensus on a long-term off-road vehicle plan at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Despite intensive efforts by a core sub group in recent weeks - all-day meetings followed by weekend phone conferences followed by all-day, late-into-the night meetings - the 29-member negotiated rule making committee on Thursday evening gave up.

The task of developing regulations for the beach driving management plan will fall to National Park Service Outer Banks Group Superintendent Mike Murray, who has been at the table throughout the grueling process. Under the terms of a court-sanctioned agreement, a long-term ORV management plan must be completed by Dec. 31, 2010.

Murray said he did not know how many total hours had been invested in the negotiating process.

"I would guess an unbelievable amount," he said after the meeting. "I know everybody went way beyond the call of duty. For me, it's part of my job. For some people, it's their passion."

Passion has not been lacking about the issue, which ultimately pitted those who want prime recreation areas of the seashore to remain accessible to ORVs and pedestrians against those who think shorebirds and sea turtles are not receiving the protection in the seashore that the law requires.

When a lawsuit was filed against the Park Service by Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society before the committee started meeting, some committee members said the suit tainted the possibility of good-faith negotiations. Representatives of the environmental groups were members of the committee.

The negotiated rule making process had to be approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and all parties had to agree to ground rules before it started.

But the public was less constrained: comment periods were dominated by fiery, sometimes teary, speeches that often skewered the motivations, methods and even morals of the environmentalists.

Hyde and Dare counties and a coalition of beach driving groups joined the Park Service in defending the court action. Rallies were held, petitions were signed and letter-writing campaigns were launched.

In April, an agreement was reached that settled the lawsuit. But the large amount of beach closures mandated in the consent decree surprised and angered the ORV community.

John Couch, president of the Outer Banks Preservation Association, an open-access group, said the negotiations were a non-starter because the committee had "too many one-dimensional factions" and the consent decree forced the ORV proponents into a defensive mode "where we always had to argue."

"It put us at a disadvantage," he said.

The environmentalists' proposals seemed to demand more beach closures and bird protections as time went on, Couch said. By the end, Defenders and Audubon had proposed closing large portions of the Bodie Island spit, Hatteras Inlet spit, South Beach and Cape Point and the north and south points of Ocracoke Island.

"It was an impasse," he said. "We tried... to bring the process to the middle. We felt that we had gone as far as we could without compromising our values of access to the seashore."

In a statement, the environmental groups said they "consistently offered balanced proposals that made reasonable concessions based on science, were consistent with the park's legal requirements, and tried to accommodate the interests of other stakeholders."

Bird populations, the statement said, "began to rebound and a record number of sea turtle nests were documented while occupancy rates in hotels also increased."

Jason Rylander, an attorney for Defenders and a committee member, said Thursday that despite the lack of consensus, the meetings weren't a waste of time.

The Park Service now has the information available to make a good decision on the beach driving rule, he said. All the time spent negotiating gave everyone a better understanding of the other's viewpoint. And there were points of agreement.

"I am heartened that there is recognition that when there are nests on the beach," he said, "they have to be protected."

Down the road, the Park Service will be holding public hearings on the proposed ORV regulation that Murray develops. But with pre-nesting beach closures required in the consent decree about to be implemented again, the conflict over ORV access is not likely to be diffused.

In an unexpected wrinkle, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, who had signed the decree, has ordered parties to a hearing in Elizabeth City federal court at 10 a.m. Thursday. The judge did not say what his reason was for the hearing.

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