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Tourists are returning to the Outer Banks. Unfortunately, so are vandals.
Last week, National Park Service officials set up a protective zone around a pair of breeding American oystercatchers on the beach south of Avon at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Within a couple of days, the signs and posts marking the area were uprooted or broken.
It was the first act of vandalism this season, but it also was a very familiar scene for everyone involved in the dispute over driving on the beach.
If the vandals were trying to protest the protections, they undermined their own goal. The destruction prompted an automatic expansion of the buffer zone under a consent decree signed by conservationists, an off-road vehicle coalition and officials from Dare and Hyde counties two years ago.
The court order, which limits beach driving and pedestrians near vulnerable shorebirds and turtles, was necessary because the National Park Service never complied with an executive order to develop rules for beach driving. That order was signed by President Richard Nixon nearly 40 years ago.
The regulations are finally on their way.
This week, park officials held public hearings on the Outer Banks and in Raleigh. A final hearing is set for 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Holiday Inn & Conference Center, 1815 W. Mercury Blvd., in Hampton.
Six proposals are under review and are available online at http://bit.ly/dsLVeZ. Park officials are accepting comments through May 11, and a final decision is expected by the end of the year.
Park officials, who have been subjected to unfounded claims that they're complicit with environmentalists in the vandalism, have worked hard to implement the terms of the court order. And they've put together proposals that strive for a sensible balance between protecting natural resources and preserving a long tradition of beach driving.
Vandals aren't doing anything sensible. The sooner they're arrested - and marginalized through the adoption of new rules - the better off residents and visitors to the seashore will be.
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Not the first time.
This wouldn't be the first time that boundries were disturbed to increase the size of the restricted areas. They won't stop until the beaches are closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The organizations behind the lawsuits are more concerned about closing the beaches not allowing use of the recreational areas.