Continuation of yesterday's "Beach Driving Update - Part 1" - Few business people on the island have any confidence in the Industrial Economics report. Even the casual observer should be skeptical given the popularity of the areas to be closed to fishermen and other beachgoers. Also, opponents of additional restrictions on ORV use on the beach note challenge the claim that only 12 percent of the shoreline would be closed with new restrictions is misleading.
This from a posting by Jim and Ginny Luzier of Frisco on several Internet bulletin boards:
“The map for the year-round closures does not specify the actual miles included in the requested year round closures. That said, the map is comparable to the critical habitat designation. Using the data from the critical habitat designation and a thorough review of 2007 beach access reports, I determined that the requested year round closures total approximately 12.9 miles. As for the miles of shoreline actually available to ORVs, the total is 41 miles (57 minus 16 miles of beach closed for more than a decade). Bottom line the requested year round closures actually account for 31% (12.9/41) of the shoreline available to ORVs during the winter and 37% (12.9/34.8) of the shoreline available during the summer when seasonal closures are in effect. This is a far cry from the 12% figure provided by SELC.”
The interim plan that is under fire from the environmental groups was put in place by the Park Service to manage protected shorebirds and turtles and ORV use on the beach until a long-range plan is developed.
The Park Service hopes that the final plan will be developed by a negotiated rulemaking process with an associated Environmental Impact Statement. However, this process is expected to take about three years.
After several years of planning, negotiated rulemaking finally got underway with the first official meeting of the 30 committee members and their alternates on Jan. 3 and 4 in Avon.
The committee had already worked through some tense exchanges at a preliminary workshop in October, just days after the environmental groups, which have pledged to negotiate in good faith, filed the lawsuit against the interim plan.
Attorneys for the groups defend their action in filing suit by noting that the legal action concerns the interim plan, while the negotiating committee is working on a long-range plan. They offer no apologies for the legal action, noting that if the Park Service had addressed the need for ORV regulation when it should have, the action would not be necessary.
That defense just doesn't hold water with many of the other committee members.
However, it seemed in January that the committee had worked through some differences and was ready to move ahead with the work of rulemaking by consensus.
What will happen now is anyone's guess.
The next meeting of the committee is Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 26 and 27, at the Ramada Center in Kill Devil Hills.
Irene Nolan, Island Free Press
Continued with part 3 tomorrow...
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