Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area

Background
Executive Order 11644 of 1972 requires federal agencies permitting ORV use on agency lands to make regulations for such use. Due to this Order, the National Park Service (NPS) is developing an Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Management Plan for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area (CHNSRA). The NPS maintains that ORV's must be regulated in a manner that appropriately addresses resource protection—including threatened and endangered species—and potential conflicts among the various CHNSRA users. The NPS has assigned a high priority to the completion of this ORV Plan and subsequent regulations.

Since ORVs are necessary to access many sportfishing areas of the CHNSRA, the concern is that the ORV Plan may give little consideration to economic impacts to any segment of the sportfishing industry and the communities that depend on sportfishing. The implementation of the ORV Plan poses serious questions about the future of recreational fishing in the CHNSRA and presents a serious challenge to sportfishing because:

• The ORV Plan could ultimately prevent reasonable access to many of the CHNSRA’s best marine sportfishing areas;
• The ORV Plan is developed through a complex regulatory process, making it difficult for anglers and the public to understand;
• Statewide, anglers are not coordinated to oppose large unwarranted ORV restrictions;
• Environmental groups supporting access closures under the ORV Plan are well- funded and well-organized; and

The NPS has assigned a high priority to the completion of the ORV Plan and subsequent regulations. In an attempt to complete the ORV Plan in a collaborative fashion, the NPS formed the CHNSRA Negotiated Rulemaking (RegNeg) Committee to assist in its development of the Plan. The Reg-Neg, consisted of various stakeholders in the CHNSRA, including environmental groups, anglers, business-owners, and tourism organizations, among others.

Interim Strategy and Consent Decree
On June 13, 2007, the NPS implemented an Interim Protected Species Management Strategy (Interim Strategy) to provide adequate protection for resident shorebirds until Negotiated Rulemaking is complete in December 2010.

However, on February 20, 2008, the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society (Plaintiffs) filed an injunction asking that all ORV access, except for essential vehicles, be stopped on the CHNSRA. The Plaintiffs argued that the NPS’s Interim Strategy did not provide adequate protection for area shorebirds. The federal government declined to defend the Interim Strategy and entered into settlement negotiations with the Plaintiffs.

In late April 2008, Federal District Judge Terrence Boyle approved a consent decree outlining the details of the settlement agreement, which will remain in effect until the RegNeg Committee has completed its work and the NPS issues a final long term ORV Management Plan. The details of the settlement agreement are extensive and put in place protections for shorebirds that exceed the protections outlined in the Interim Strategy. These protections have resulted in extensive restrictions on ORV access to key surf fishing spots in CHNSRA and an undue economic burden on the local economy.

Both Plaintiffs have a seat on the RegNeg Committee, a situation viewed by many as a conflict of interest. This concern was brought to the attention of Department of Interior (DOI) staff by other RegNeg Committee members and various CHNSRA stakeholders. Although several groups requested the removal of the Plaintiffs from the RegNeg Committee on the basis that they did not follow ground rules to negotiate “in good faith,” this request was denied by the DOI in June 2008.

The RegNeg Committee met approximately 12 times from January 2008 – February 2009. However, it was never able to come to consensus (i.e., unanimous vote) on a comprehensive management plan for ORVs. The points of contention were focused on which parts of the seashore would or would not be deemed an ORV “route or area” and what level of protection/buffers wildlife would be afforded. Following the end of RegNeg Committee process, the National Park Service began to develop its own ‘preferred alternative,’ along with a spectrum of other alternatives, which will be undergo an evaluation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and public review.

DEIS
On March 5, 2010, the NPS released its ORV Draft Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which evaluates the potential impacts of several alternatives guiding management of CHNSRA. The NPS preferred alternative, Alternative F, as outlined in the DEIS is the most restrictive management option to date, far exceeding any sense of balance between resource protection and public access and betraying all promises made to the public regarding recreational uses in the seashore. The majority of the provisions included within the preferred alternative far exceed anything proposed by a majority of the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, including excessively large resource closures (buffers), unnecessary year-round and floating closures, and the lack of access corridors around or through resource closures. In addition, critical socio-economic information is either missing or incomplete in the DEIS.

To view comments submitted by the American Sportfishing Association, click here.

The public comment period on the DEIS closed, May 11, 2010. The park will next review comments, make revisions to the DEIS and release a final Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement by the end of 2010.

Legislation
In February 2009, Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC‐3rd) reintroduced legislation, H.R. 718, in the House of Representatives to reinstate the Interim Protected Species Strategy. Senator Burr (R‐NC) introduced the Senate version, S. 1557, in July 2009, and Senator Kay Hagan (D‐NC) has cosponsored. In the meantime, the provisions of the settlement agreement/consent decree continue to govern the management of the seashore.

For more information on this issue, read these news articles:

• ORV Plan Gives Too Much Space to Some Species, Critics Say 5-9-10
• Chairman Takes Aim at Audubon 2-3-10
  
• Consent Decree Scores a Failing Grade 8-13-09
  
• N. Carolina's Hagan Supports Bill to Permit Driving on Beach 8-12-09
• An Erosion of Democracy 6-27-08
• Dole, Burr and Jones Introduce Legislation to Allow ORV use on Cape Hatteras National Seashore 6-11-07
• The consent decree is classic example of bad public policy 5-23-08
• Three popular areas closed to ORVs under consent decree 5-5-08
• Parties to ORV lawsuit agree on settlement 4-16-08
  
• What’s driving beach restrictions 4-10-08

Keep America Fishing’s Goal and Purpose for North Carolina
Access to the resource is a critical element in having successful recreational fishing. Recreational anglers, and boaters, have always been in the forefront of fisheries conservation in the United States financing countless conservation and restoration projects through license fees, motorboat fuel taxes and the federal excise tax on fishing gear. At $8.5 million, North Carolina is 5th in state tax revenue earnings from saltwater sportfishing. At almost $754 million, sportfishing’s annual economic output is not insignificant.

The goal of North Carolina's sportfishing advocates and anglers is to maximize the conservation benefit to the marine and surrounding environment while minimizing unwarranted closures of NC beaches to surf fishing.

The purpose of pursuing this goal is to:

• Maintain and improve the conservation of North Carolina marine fisheries and associated natural resources so as to improve the overall health of the ocean and adjacent habitat;
• Assure that the process for future closures or designations under the NC National Park Service relies on biological and economic information in a balanced fashion; and
• Increase sportfishing opportunities in North Carolina from their current economic and participation levels.

North Carolina Saltwater Recreational Fishing Facts

• Generates $913 million annual economic output
• Generates $559 million in NC retails sales
• Supports 9,735 North Carolina jobs
• Generates $58.5 million in NC income taxes
• Pays $267 million in NC salaries and wages
• North Carolina has over 519,000 saltwater anglers

The American Sportfishing Association (ASA), the sportfishing industry’s trade association, is working to ensure that anglers' and boaters' voices are heard as marine and aquatic management plans are developed. You can help ASA in its efforts to minimize recreational fishing closures by donating to the Keep America Fishing Fund.