Beach
Access Issues
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September 5, 2008
House subcommittee plans hearing on bill to set aside consent decree
By IRENE NOLAN
The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Parks,
Forests and Public Lands will have a hearing on a bill to set aside a
consent decree governing off-road vehicle use on the Cape Hatteras
National Seashore and return the management of ORVs and resources to
the Park Service under its interim management strategy. The hearing is
planned for Thursday, Sept. 11, at 10 a.m.
The bill, HR 6233, was introduced on June 11 by U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, Jr., R-NC.
The consent decree was signed on April 30 by U.S. District Court Judge
Terrence Boyle. It settled a lawsuit filed last fall by
environmental groups, which charged that the park’s interim
strategy did not go far enough to protect birds and turtles on the
seashore. The plaintiffs were the Defenders of Wildlife and National
Audubon Society, which were represented by the Southern Environmental
Law Center. Defendants included the National Park Service and
other federal entities. Dare and Hyde counties and the Cape
Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance were allowed by the judge to be
intervenors/defendants in the legal action.
The consent decree, agreed upon by all parties to the lawsuit, is
to regulate ORV use on seashore beaches until a long-term plan is
completed through a negotiated rulemaking process by a committee of 30
stakeholders.
The effect of the consent decree has been to close down larger sections
of the beach than ever before during the spring and summer pre-nesting
and nesting seasons, especially at four popular recreational areas,
Bodie Island spit, Cape Point and South Beach, Hatteras Inlet, and
South Point on Ocracoke.
The bill would reinstate the Interim Management Strategy, issued by the
National Park Service on June 13, 2007, to regulate ORV use and
protection of natural resources.
County officials, many business people, resident, and visitors have been critical of the consent decree and its effects.
“I am very grateful that the House Subcommittee on National
Parks, Forests and Public Lands has agreed to examine this important
issue,” Jones said. “The legislation I’ve
introduced would restore reasonable public access and would bring the
public back into the process on a level playing field by reinstituting
the Interim Management Strategy until the Negotiated Rulemaking
Committee can produce a final rule.”
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, both Republicans from North
Carolina, introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S3113. A Senate
subcommittee had a hearing on that bill on July 30.
A list of witnesses who will testify at the hearing has not been
released. Warren Judge, chairman of the Dare County Board of
Commissioners, and Derb Carter, attorney for the Southern Environmental
Law Center, were among those who testified at the Senate subcommittee
hearing.
(Articles about the Senate subcommittee hearing are still posted on the Beach Access Issues Page.)
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