|
NPS/Google Earth Maps of Resource Closures Click Here
NPS Frequently Asked Questions on Beach Access Click Here
NPS map of ORV routes and vehicle-free areas Click Here
|
|
 Park Service starts prescribed burn on Bodie Island
If you smell smoke on Hatteras or Ocracoke or see it over the sound, don’t worry.
As
part of the Outer Banks Group Fire Management Plan, the National Park
Service began a prescribed burn on Friday, Feb. 3, in the Bodie Island
District of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Weather and conditions
permitting, the burn unit will consist of approximately 1,000 acres and
is located west of Highway 12, from Oregon Inlet north to the Bodie
Island Lighthouse area.
During
the operation, for public safety, the Bodie Island Lighthouse Access
Road will be temporarily closed and Highway 12 will be signed for low
visibility if necessary.
The
intent of the burn is to reduce fuel loading in the area as well as
restore vegetative communities. In order to safely accomplish the burn,
mechanical reduction of fuels will be conducted to establish breaks
along the access road to the U.S. Coast Guard Station at Oregon Inlet,
around the electrical substation, the historic Bodie Island U.S. Life
Saving Service Station, and the boardwalk and wildlife viewing platform
along the
Power lines on the east side of the burn unit.
|
 ORV
permits will cost $120 a year and go on sale Feb. 15
The
new off-road vehicle permits for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore
will cost $120 a year or $50 a week and will go on sale on Wednesday,
Feb. 15. The permits are required by the final rule for ORV use at the
seashore, which was released to the public on Jan. 20 and becomes
effective Feb. 15.
The
Park Service says there will be transition period between Feb.15 and
March 15 before the rule is fully implemented and enforced. This will
allow time for the seashore to install new ORV route markers and
informational signs and for people to obtain the permit. Read more
|
 The new normal: Where
we can drive and where we cannot
When the National Park Service final rule for off-road vehicles for the
Cape Hatteras National Seashore becomes effective on Feb. 15, we will
have to learn some new habits about beach driving on the beach and say
goodbye to some old ones – like driving on the beach for free.
There are some places, such as the Hook, we’re used to driving that we
will not drive again. Some of them are places near and dear to our
hearts, favorite places for surf fishing, shelling, surfing, and for
families to bring a day’s worth of gear and hang out, fish, swim, cook
dinner, and have a bonfire on the beach. Read more
The seashore’s off-road vehicle rule is now final
The National Park Service today released to the public the final
off-road vehicle rule for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The rule will be published Monday, Jan. 23, in the Federal Register and
will become effective on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
The
long-awaited, much anticipated, and hotly debated final ORV rule had no
surprises or significant changes from the proposed regulation, released
for public comment last July. Read more
|
 Park
Service is working with Avon groups on finishing Little Kinnakeet
restoration
One
of the most unique and handsome historic structures on the Outer Banks
is seldom seen by anybody, including the people who drive by it every
day.
Little
Kinnakeet Life-Saving Station, its watchtower poking up over the brush
on the soundside of Highway 12 between Avon and Salvo, has been
partially restored and weatherized during the last decade.
But
money to complete the work has yet to materialize.
Rather
than have the structure continue to languish, islanders are now working
with the National Park Service Outer Banks Group to secure a lease that
would make it possible to finish the station’s restoration and open it
for public use. Read more
|
 UPDATE: Bodie
Island Lighthouse restoration will resume in late February
Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Mike Murray announced
this week that a $1.89 million contract has been awarded to resume
restoration of the famed Bodie Island Lighthouse. The
National
Park Service (NPS) Denver Service Center has issued a notice to proceed
with the award of contract to the prime contractor, United Builders
Group, LLC from New Bern, N.C.
The new project is expected to begin in late February and be completed
in October.
Bodie Island Lighthouse is set to have restoration completed and will
be open for climbing
The first
Bodie Island Lighthouse tipped over. The second one was blown up by
soldiers.
But
the third one, nearly undone by wicked weather, budget woes, and a
bureaucratic tug-of-war, has emerged as the little lighthouse that
could.
Restoration
of the Bodie Island Lighthouse is as close as it’s ever been to being
realized, with only a routine budget procedure to be resolved before
the start of the final leg of the project.
Read more
|
 Two
structures near Hatteras Lighthouse burn to the ground
Two
structures housing portable toilets near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
in Buxton burned to the ground last night. Hatteras District Ranger
David Carter said that the fires were reported to Dare County
Communications about 5 a.m. this morning. Read more
|
 NPS employees finish hurricane
debris clean-up on Ocracoke
National
Park Service employees did the last of debris clean-up from Hurricane
Irene on the north end of Ocracoke Island on Thursday, Dec. 1. District
ranger Kenny Ballance explained that ferry riders had alerted him to
large pieces of debris littering the soundside beach near the north end
ferry docks.
With
the help of about eight NPS employees from the Hatteras and Bodie
Island districts in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the group
spent the morning gathering enough debris for three dump truck loads.
Read more
|
 Award-winning
Ocracoke ranger is known for his boundless energy and gregarious nature
Kenny
Ballance, an Ocracoke native who worked his way up the ranks in the
National Park Service has received the service’s Southeast Region Harry
Yount Park Ranger Award earlier this month. It’s a distinction awarded
one ranger yearly in each of the seven regions of the National Park
Service.
“He’s the go-to person for park issues on Ocracoke,” notes
Paul Stevens, the chief ranger for the Outer Banks Group of parks and
Kenny’s boss, as well as the person who nominated him for the
award. Read more
|
 Park
Service is preparing to implement ORV rule
While
the public is commenting on the National Park Service’s
proposal
rule for off-road vehicles on the Cape Hatteras National seashore, park
officials are already working on the details of implementing a final
plan.
Seashore
officials are working now on the cost of ORV permits and will begin an
environmental assessment in the fall to determine the cost of new
infrastructure needed to support the plan and proposed rule.
The
cost of the improvements hasn’t been determined and Murray said it
would take several years to implement all of them.
Read more
|
 NPS gets
extension
for final ORV plan at Boyle’s status conference
A
relaxed, convivial atmosphere filled the federal courtroom in Raleigh
yesterday afternoon as Federal District Court Judge Terrence Boyle led
the fourth review of the consent decree that has controlled public
access to the beaches of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore since 2008.
In
a short period of time, the court approved an extension of the deadline
for completion of the National Park Service’s new ORV management plan
to Nov. 15, and acknowledged the Park Service’s planned response to the
threatened U.S. government shutdown -- close all the beaches.
Read more
|
 Hagan,
Burr, and Jones ask for more reasonable beach access
Three
members of North Carolina’s Congressional delegation are pushing the
secretary of the Department of the Interior and the director of the
Office of Management and Budget to decide on a “more appropriate”
balance between public access and environmental stewardship in the
proposed rule for off-road vehicles at the Cape Hatteras National
Seashore. Read more
|
 Park
Service releases its 2010 annual reports on protected species
The
Park Service has released the Cape Hatteras National Seashore 2010
annual reports for protected species and a report on the status of its
off-road vehicle management. Read more
|
 UPDATE: Economic
reports available to the public
Superintendent
Mike Murray announced today that reports prepared by RTI International
for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s Final Off-Road Vehicle
Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, have been posted and
are available to the public on the RTI International website.
The posting of the reports comes two days after the Park Service’s
Record of Decision on the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
To provide additional information for the ORV management planning
process, the National Park Service contracted with RTI International to
conduct a survey of local businesses, an intercept survey of seashore
visitors, and non-contact counts of vehicles using the oceanside beach
access ramps and visitors using selected beaches at the
Seashore.
For each of these studies, RTI International has completed reports
which are now available on-line at:
www.rti.org/pubs/business-survey_rti-rpt.pdf
www.rti.org/pubs/CAHA-noncontact_rti-rpt.pdf
www.rti.org/pubs/intercept-survey_rti-rpt.pdf
UPDATE….Park Service signs Record of Decision on FEIS
The Record
of
Decision (ROD) for the National Park Service’s Final Environmental
Impact Statement for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Off-Road
Vehicle Management Plan was signed and approved by Acting Regional
Director Gordon Wissinger on Monday, Dec. 20.
The 218-page ROD documents the decision by the NPS to implement
Alternative F, the NPS Preferred Alternative, which is now the
“selected action.”
The Record of Decision is available on the NPS Planning Environment and
Public Comment (PEPC) website at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=358&projectID=10641&documentID=38008.
|
 NPS
releases Final Environmental Impact Statement on ORV plan
The
National Park Service has released the Final Environmental Impact
statement (FEIS) for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Off-Road
Vehicle Management Plan. The final plan/EIS evaluates two no-action
alternatives and four action alternatives for managing ORV use and
identifies their potential environmental consequences. The Park Service
has chosen Alternative F in the FEIS as its preferred alternative –
with some revisions from Alternative F in its draft plan. Read more
|
Park
Service releases
annual reports for protected species on the seashore
The
Cape Hatteras National Seashore 2009 annual reports for protected
species and a report on the status of off-road vehicle management plan
and negotiated rulemaking were released last week and are available to
the public on the Park Planning (PEPC) Web site under the Interim
Protected Species Management Strategy project. Read more
|
Is Bodie Island spit owned by the Park Service – or not?
Who
owns Bodie Island spit? Most people would answer that the National Park
Service owns the spit of land on the north side of Oregon Inlet. But
that is not the answer according to Dare County records. ....Read
more
|
Click Here To View
2010 Archived Beach Access Information
Click
Here To View
2009 Archived Beach Access Information
Click
Here To View
2008 Archived Beach Access Information
|
 |
