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How is Cape Hatteras National Seashore Faring Under Travel Restrictions?

Aug 8th - 15:17pm | dapster

Anon, Thanks for responding. The parks do indeed belong to us all for input. No argument from me there. However, I'm a bit puzzled by your questions. Many folks believe that an ORV/SUV simply moving abouton the sand is detrimental. How would heavy equipment effect an area that many deem too sensitive for light vehicles? Diesel exhaust vs. gasoline? Tank treads vs. tires?

Aug 8th - 13:36pm | Anonymous

Dapster: They clean miles of beaches with heavy equipment in California and on the east coast beaches. I don't think it's a deep sand traction problem if we had tram system that was designed with special treaded tires and hooked up to a dune tractor. Just food for thought! Besides, I thought the National Parks belonged to all of us for in put...regardless of the issues.

Aug 8th - 12:19pm | dapster

*Sigh...* Here we go again. Many of you are making "armchair quarterback" decisions from 1000's of miles away, having never even set foot on Hatteras island. For shame, people! It's tantamount to me as an East Coaster telling someone how they should be running Yosemite, even though I've never been there.

Aug 8th - 11:44am | mrova

Yes, the closing have had a detrimental affect! I love the birds, the deer, the fish, and all the other critters! I have done all I can do to drive with care, protect the animals and environment, leave with more trash that I brought, and reported violators.

Aug 8th - 11:10am | Anonymous

As for the Anonymous that wants and answer to "Can someone give me one damn good reason why a well managed motorized tram system that fits well ecologically with the Cape wouldn't work?" HURRICANES, INSURANCE, LIABILITY, WHO SALL RUN THIS? Shall I continue. This again proves the point about the people who reject the idea tha man and beast can cohabitate.

Aug 8th - 09:38am | JPierce

Will someone please provide one scientific reason, backed by real data, to support the extreme closures dictated by the consent decree? I'm not asking for answers such as pristine wilderness, protected seashore, lazy fishermen, loud ORVs, blah blah blah. Give me one real reason to destroy a tradition that has been in place at Cape Hatteras for many decades.

Aug 8th - 09:16am | Anonymous

Can someone give me one damn good reason why a well managed motorized tram system that fits well ecologically with the Cape wouldn't work? Instead of being wall to wall with ORV's, we could have good spacial geography between acquired fishing posts...and with better visibility. We could have connecting cabs (like say ten light connected cabs to a jeep) to a good transporter...like in Yosemite.

Aug 8th - 09:03am | Anonymous

The true impact of the consent decree will not be felt until next year. The agreement was reached May 1st, after many reservations were already made. The increase in occupancy tax revenues quoted in the article is inflated by Dare Counties increased efforts to collect the tax from private homeowners, which is where the majority of the increase comes from.

Aug 8th - 08:05am | Anonymous

ATTN PHIL G and the REST of the uniformed:

Aug 8th - 02:09am | MRC

@Tommy Linday: It is sad to hear about your back and I wish you well. And I understand that you would like to go to remote places despite your condition and need an all terrain motorized vehicle for that. But please understand that your wish is unreasonable in a National Seashore.

Aug 7th - 22:59pm | Stephen C

Dr. Mike Berry speaks the truth here, unbiased! Go to Island Free Press also an unbiased editor and read the truth. Now, my turn to say a few things.

Aug 7th - 22:38pm | Eric D

Just so you all know, the new bridge allready has funds allocated for it from ncdot pending ongoing lawsuites from DOW, SELC and Audobon for public lands they think they own.

Aug 7th - 21:29pm | dapster

Phil G: Addressing your comments, sir, I say this: -How does the "link to a fishing message board" effect the content of an editorial written by a local journailst? Mrs. Nolan clearly defines both sides of the issue for consideration. Find the original article for yourself. -ORV access is written into the original charter of the CHNSRA. Read the above.

Aug 7th - 21:19pm | Anonymous

Tommy, I have back problems too and it's sever but I do walk and hike. It's part of the back therapy program. However, would you give up your ORV and take a convenient small tram system to your fishing destination at Hatteras, if such a system could be provided with good ecological planning and sound management?

Aug 7th - 20:35pm | Anonymous

The business and people should have know this was coming. just as we all know the Bonner Bridge will be gone over the next 5 to 10 years and they wont replace it because of the enviros. After the next Isabel plows thur the area and washes the road out for the 15 million times. the place is disolete its like a closer artic circle just not as cold.

Aug 7th - 20:35pm | Anonymous

Yeah well.....try walking the beach in 2 years when it IS CLOSED TO PEDESTRIAN ACCESS TOO!!

Aug 7th - 19:55pm | Eric D

Yep Phil, I did it, and and I'll bet ya want to know why? Well I'll tell ya. I did it for my kid. With all the negative influences our children are exposed to these days like MTV poluting their minds, peer pressures at school and general madness of knowing their futures aint as bright as ours were promised to us. Spending quality time with our families is more important now than ever.

Aug 7th - 19:09pm | Tommy Linday

You have no clue. I for one have degenerative back disease. For me and my 9 year old daughter to fish, I would need to walk 4 miles, carrying fishing equipment, umbrellas, cooler (No alchohol), etc. I guess you have never been to Hatteras island to make such an asinine comment. Check your premise, you, like DOW, Audobon, SELC obviously have an ulterior motive.

Aug 7th - 17:32pm | Phil G

Don't pay any attention to the above comments. This story was linked to a fishing message board and now they are all dumping their trash here. Cape Hatteras is a lovely place, but you don't need an SUV to enjoy it. Go out there and you will see hundreds of people driving all over the place.

Aug 7th - 10:49am | dapster

This thread needs a rebuttal to the Va.-Pilot article referenced in the original text. I hearby submit said rebuttal, from the "Island Free Press", penned by Mrs. Irene Nolan, and island resident and long-time writer for several Island newspapers. It speaks for itself, and supports Dr. Mike Berry's article also include in this thread.

Aug 7th - 09:05am | JCNowak

One thing people need to keep in mind is that despite the "ORV" being attached to this story wherever you read it, the problem is not just access for vehicles. It is also access for pedestrians. The Consent Decree calls for huge closures for both people and vehicles.

Aug 7th - 09:01am | Regina

Because the access is sooooo long. If you are unfamiliar with the area in question look at it on a map. the dunes you cannot walk on The access areas in general do not allow for very many people to park and access with beach chairs, coolers, and the like.

Aug 7th - 08:40am | Anonymous

This is so typical of a ignorant comment to make an all inclusive statement like "ORV's should not be on the beach" and "if fisherman want to fish the point let them walk their gear out". Well in your fabulous well thought out plan lets consider the handicapped and small children. Should we just post a sign stating you are not welcome?

Aug 7th - 08:34am | James Upton

Carol has not even got a clue what CAPE HATTERAS NATION REACTIONAL SEASHORE is about. It is not a wilderness area!!!!! A group of special intrest groups, (Dow, Audbon and Sleg), have formed an alliance and threatened to sue and close six for the most fished spotes on the outer banks. Under this threat a conscent decrees was forced down the throats of those involved.

Aug 7th - 08:27am | Anonymous

For those who think they have a need to blame ORV's for the Bird population decline first need to take their uniformed little minds over to www.nps/caha and check for yourself on the piping plover reports and you will see they have not actually increased in population of nests this year at all.

Aug 7th - 07:15am | Carol Marley

ORV's have NO BUSINESS on the beaches at all unless they're emergency vehicles!!!!!!!!! Why can't fishermen/women WALK down to the beaches with their gear??????? I say that no ORV's (except fro emergency vehicles) should be allowed in ANY wilderness areas.....They enable people to trash the beauty,hassle the animals with their noise,and pollute the air.

Aug 7th - 01:34am | sandman

I keep seeing Hatteras Island refered to as a natural area. The "natural" part of the island was "destroyed" when we built the dunes as one of FDR's depression ending work projects(no there is nothing natural about the dunes they are manmade) in order to have a hard surface road. Why build a hard surface road on a barrier sandbar?

Second Black Bear Euthanized In Yellowstone National Park

Aug 8th - 15:08pm | Ted Clayton

Thank you Beamis - I appreciate your encouragement! I am a little red, and a little green, unacceptably liberal, and disgustingly conservative. But I've been handicapped & disfigured this way for a long time, and it doesn't really bother me much anymore. ;-)

Aug 7th - 17:08pm | Ted Clayton

Kurt asks: But what happens to the bears if they don't have the habitat protections of a national park? There are some parts of Yellowstone that are simply off-limits to humans so as not to interfere with grizzlies. Should more limits be instituted?

Odes to the National Park Rangers Who Wear the Grey and Green

Aug 8th - 11:56am | Lone Hiker

Frank.....my point is more directed to the limitations in skill set that candidates bring to the table. You can only hire from the available pool of candidates, substandard as they may be, and the lack of intellectual development and presentation skills has nothing to do with the NPS, since to the best of my knowledge, they aren't in the business of either basic or remedial education.

Aug 8th - 11:13am | FrankC

Owen, You've made some great points here, especially about what worked in the NPS's "golden age" of interpretation. To answer your question, I feel both hiring and training are root causes for the decline in interpretive program quality.

Aug 8th - 09:45am | pkrnger

Frank, is the problem really one of recruiting subtandard employees, or is it the absence of training, auditing, and mentoring?

Aug 7th - 17:58pm | Random Walker

Here's to that Ranger just the other week, at the Camp Siberia Shelter in Olympic National Park who traded me honest to goodness to die for chocolate for a few hands full of GORP while the wind howled and the rain fell sideways.

Aug 7th - 12:07pm | FrankC

". . . the quality of . . . interpretive presentations . . . isn't the direct or indirect result of NPS policy, training, screening or selection."

Aug 7th - 10:38am | Lone Hiker

Certain occupations are entitled to uniform remunerations due to the nature of the environment in which the operator is placed.

Decisions on Controlling Elk in Theodore Roosevelt, Wind Cave National Parks Likely to Linger Into 2009

Aug 8th - 11:17am | SaltSage236

I'm not sure that in extraordinary circumstances allowing hunters to help the NPS cull elk herds is such a bad idea. As a Denverite and frequent visitor to Rocky Mountain National Park, the elk are so abundant and unafraid of people that I've seen visitors walk up to grazing elk near a Trail Ridge Road overlook and pet them.

Creating Cape Cod National Seashore Forced the National Park Service to Think Outside the Box

Aug 8th - 10:48am | d-2

Bob - you make so few mistakes (and even the ones you make are provocative in the best way !), and your readers so much enjoy your pieces, my guess is you get 100% credit for everything you do for us.

Aug 7th - 14:02pm | Bob Janiskee

Since the "42" typo was only in the body of the article (the abstract correctly specified "47"), will you give me 50 percent credit? :-)

Aug 7th - 13:10pm | Joyce

As a point of correction - Cape Cod National Seashore is 47 years old. I remember going to visit as a day trip with my parents and siblings when I was a small child. I never realized it had only just opened just after I was born. Thank you for the article and reminding me of such a wonderful place to visit.

NPS Retirees Oppose Carrying Guns in National Parks

Aug 8th - 09:26am | Joe

Could be that maybe one of those fools who are permitted to carry, might just save your life one day.

Visiting the Parks: Yellowstone National Park's Shoshone Lake

Aug 8th - 09:25am | jsmacdonald

Thanks so much for writing about bats, Kurt.

“10 Best National Parks”? National Geographic, You Have Got to be Kidding!

Aug 7th - 14:53pm | SaltSage236

"10 best" lists are pointless and ridiculous because each park has its own virtues, purposes and meaning to different people.

Did the NRA Infiltrate Groups Opposed to Overhauling Gun Regulations for the National Parks?

Aug 7th - 14:27pm | Ted Clayton

As FrankC observes: Mother Jones? Yes, they could conceivably produce useful information, but if one is serious about presenting a case, corroboration is going to be more than normally important.

NPS Snowmobile Plan for Yellowstone, Grand Teton Bucks Science, the Public, and Itself

Aug 7th - 13:35pm | Ted Clayton

There is a big difference between a vehicle that is being ridden or driven thoughtfully & considerately in the course of transporting oneself and achieving access, and a vehicle that is being used as a source of entertainment, in & of itself.

Aug 7th - 09:10am | Todd

Another issue with the park service and loud motorcycles is that the park police use them. A park police motorcycle officer roared by my house one sunday at 8 am while escorting some VIPs to the Mt. Vernon Estate. I drove over and asked him about his motorcycle. He agreed that it was much louder than it came from the factory, that it had aftermarket mufflers which were much louder.

Aug 7th - 08:55am | Todd

I have done some research on the subject of motorcycle noise, I live close to the entrance of the GW Parkway which is a national park area starting at the Mt. Vernon Estate. Loud motorcycles often turn this area into what sounds like a racetrack.

The Secret Life of Drugs in Parks

Aug 7th - 12:31pm | Ted Clayton

I am an Olympic Peninsula local, and have enjoyed the Park as my backyard for over 50 years. As a youth, and at times as an adult, I have picked salal and swordferns, gathered wild mushrooms, peeled cascara bark, collected polypores, stuffed gunny bags with moss, and practiced other so-called forest-byproduct activities.

What Suggestions Do You Have For the National Park Service?

Aug 7th - 10:42am | Ted Clayton

It seems very doubtful that career Park personnel welcomed the new proliferating fee-systems. They did not envision themselves becoming nickel & dime collectors from an irate public. It is harshly dissonant to their self-image, to be rooting & grubbing from an often resentful & doubtful public, to support the Park budget.

Olympic National Park Ready for Wolves?

Aug 7th - 01:36am | Ted Clayton

I live on the Olympic Peninsula, west of Sequim. My grandparents milked cows on the "Sequim Prairie", with about 300 other farm-families.

Study Says Loss of Wolves Damaging Olympic National Park's Forest Ecosystem

Aug 6th - 23:50pm | Ted Clayton

Hunters with firearms are the main control on Olympic Peninsula elk-populations today. Hunters - both local rural folk and veritable hordes in pickup campers 'from the cities' - lobby heavily to manage the herds at the highest achievable levels - the better to successfully hunt them.

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