With the breeding season still underway, 2010 is already a record-breaking year for rare sea turtles and waterbirds that nest on beaches at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, according to preliminary numbers from the National Park Service. More details are in the press release
Learn more about this case »National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Southern Environmental Law Center yesterday submitted comments regarding the National Park Service’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s Off-road Vehicle Management Plan. More information is in a joint statement.
Please help with an urgent conservation issue that could have an impact on all national parks—the future management of off-road vehicles within Cape Hatteras National Seashore on North Carolina's Outer Banks. The park's beaches are crucial nesting areas for rare birds and sea turtles. Other park visitors also enjoy areas without ORVs for recreational activities and safe family recreation.
The public has one chance to comment on this plan (called a Draft Environmental Impact Statement or DEIS) before midnight (Mountain Daylight Time) May 11, 2010 to make sure that the Park Service protects the rare birds and sea turtles for which Cape Hatteras is famous and provides equal access for all visitors.
Please make your voice heard by submitting comments to the National Park Service.
Conservation groups are studying proposed rules released today by the National Park Service to govern off-road vehicle use at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The groups are examining the document to see if the rules balance the interests of ORV enthusiasts with the park service’s primary responsibility to preserve the seashore’s natural resources, including rare sea turtles, birds, and their young, for present and future generations. As a unit of the National Park System, Cape Hatteras has been required for decades under federal law to establish guidelines for off-road vehicles (ORVs) that minimize harm to wildlife and natural values of the seashore in accordance with the best available science. More details are in the news release.
While seeking to overturn it through a bill in the US Senate (S. 1557), the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance (CHAPA) and Dare and Hyde Counties extolled the protections afforded piping plovers by a 2008 Consent Decree on managing off-road vehicle (ORV) use on Cape Hatteras National Seashore in a public legal brief filed on February 4, 2010 in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia (click here for legal brief). The legal filing is part of their lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s decision to designate certain areas of the Seashore as critical habitat for piping plovers which are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
In the filing, CHAPA (a coalition of ORV advocacy organizations) and counties argue that:
CHAPA and Dare and Hyde Counties, along with the National Park Service and environmental organizations, entered the Consent Decree in April 2008 to provide protections to piping plovers and other wildlife on the National Seashore. After recommending to the federal court that it approve the Consent Decree, CHAPA and Dare County subsequently criticized the measures in the Consent Decree to protect threatened piping plovers and other wildlife. They have supported proposed legislation in Congress to overturn the wildlife protection measures in the Consent Decree while at the same time now arguing it provides “important biological benefits and protections” to threatened piping plovers that replace the need for critical habitat designation on the National Seashore.
