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http://islandfreepress.org/
Courtesy of our friends at the Island Free Press. The good, the bad, and the ugly as follows:
Good news is that more beach areas at Hatteras including the Point are back open to ORV & Pedestrian traffic.
Bad news is that it will probably be very short lived given the expected closures due to the needless over protection of turtles. Again, both the science and my own 20yrs of anectodal observation is that there is little impact by public access traffic on turtles. The historical turtle management by USFWS biologists and NPS staff has been more the protective of turtles.
The ugly is that this is the first year ever that we cannot have ORV public access to the beaches at night which you all know to be prime red drum fishing time. Permits for night beach access may be available after Sept. 15th ~ will see?!
Cape Hatteras is a National Seashore and not a National Wildlife Refuge (like Pea Island or Back Bay) ergo public access and recreation come first, wildlife second. The "injunction" has created mini NWR's within the Seashore and unlawfully restricts public access.
So will keep working on this issue eh,
Mark and all your public access friends at VCAN |
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TOO LITTLE PUBLIC SHORELINE, FOR TOO MANY PEOPLE
Read the E-Pilot Article - Click Here
PUBLIC ACCESS to beaches and waterways is increasingly fraught with conflict. Part of the problem is that so little coastal property is held in the public trust on the East Coast and elsewhere. In Virginia, according to the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, only 2 percent of the Bay shoreline and its tidal tributaries are open to the public.
In 2000, there were only 619 public access points - sites that provide access to beaches, fishing, boating and natural areas - in the Bay region. Of these, only 238 were in Virginia. Add that to the limited amount of land publicly held, available and accessible to the public on Virginia’s oceanfront, and it’s clear why there are so many conflicts over access.
Amid this shortage, population growth is increasing the demand for beach and waterway access. More than 60 percent of all Americans live within 50 miles of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the five Great Lakes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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