Before I move on to court-related beach access news, I want to take just a moment to talk about milestones and memories.
This year marks two important hurricane-related milestones. It?s the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Emily?s devastation on southern Hatteras, and it?s been 10 years since Hurricane Isabel tore up Hatteras village and cut a new inlet between Hatteras and Frisco.
The last three years have brought us stressful, difficult, and economically devastating hurricane seasons with Earl in 2010, Irene in 2011, and Sandy in 2012.
We are all hoping and praying that this season is quieter on Hatteras and Ocracoke. We need the break.
Hurricanes Emily and Isabel will not be soon forgotten by any of us who lived through them.
And, although these anniversaries are not cause for celebration, they are certainly a good reason to pause and remember the resiliency of islanders and the triumph of the human spirit.
I hope many of you who were here for the storms and those who were not will take time to read the articles on our new page, ?Milestones: Remembering hurricanes Emily and Isabel.?
The articles include stories that I and others wrote after both of these storms. It was before there was an Island Free Press when I worked for another publication that covered Hatteras and Ocracoke at the time.
Reading them again brought back a lot of memories ? some not good at all and others, bittersweet.
I especially liked what Anne Bowers wrote in a story about Hurricane Isabel, the destruction, the recovery effort, and the inlet that divided Hatteras Island.
?Disasters such as Hurricane Isabel break down more than property and buildings,? she wrote in a story that is posted on this page. ?They also break down the barriers that sometimes divide people. Because of Isabel, all of us are on the same side, fighting the same fight: food, water, shelter. For now, we are divided only by water.?
And please send us your memories and photos from Emily and Isabel. We would like to post those on the ?Milestones? page also. You can send them to editor@islandfreepress.org.
MORE STRANGE MOMENTS WITH JUDGE BOYLE
U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle had another status conference to discuss the consent decree that ended a lawsuit that environmental groups filed against the National Park Service over its lack of an off-road vehicle plan and its inadequate protection of nesting birds and turtles on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The consent decree directed management of ORVs at the seashore until the Park Service enacted an ORV plan and final rule.
The plan and final rule became effective in February of last year ? almost 18 months ago.
Therefore, the consent decree ended. Or did it?
Boyle doesn?t think it did, and he made it clear in court this week that he will keep on having status conferences, apparently for as long as he pleases.
So all of the attorneys for the environmental groups, the federal government, and the defendant-intervenors, as well as National Park Service officials, continue to gather with His Honor to talk about how great all is going at the seashore and how terrific the consent decree ? and presumably the final rule ? are.
Of course, they aren?t going to refuse to show up when summoned by a federal judge, and the Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys are more than happy to talk about the great nesting successes at the seashore on behalf of the clients the center represented in the lawsuit.
Funny thing happened this year. The nesting success for piping plovers, American oystercatchers, and sea turtles was not as good as it had been for the past few years.
Seashore Superintendent Barclay Trimble briefly chalked this year?s disappointing numbers to a tropical storm in early June that wiped out some nests and chicks. And there was no more discussion of the lower nesting success.
It?s interesting to note that no one pointed out that the successful numbers for the past few years maybe were a result of the lack of early season storms.
Boyle made a few other comments that show he really doesn?t understand the situation at the seashore while the small group in attendance politely listened.
At one point, he brought up the fact that he had threatened to issue an injunction closing the seashore beaches to ORVs until the Park Service had a rule and plan.
It was unclear why he brought this up again, since the Park Service does have a rule and plan now.
It?s interesting to contemplate what His Honor might do if Congress should pass the current bills to overturn the rule and plan. That is a long-shot, but it could happen.
Would Judge Boyle continue to have status conferences and summon members of Congress to attend to explain themselves?
?THAT OTHER LAWSUIT?
One of the most bizarre moments in Boyle?s status conference was when he mentioned ?that other lawsuit.?
Here is what Jim Lea, who covered the conference for The Island Free Press, wrote in his story that was posted online yesterday:
?The judge then asked if the SELC is involved in what he called ?the other lawsuit.? There was some rather confused conversation among Boyle, Julie Youngman, and Rudy Renfer about who had filed the suit and whether that plaintiff had legal standing. After digging through her papers, Youngman advised Boyle that the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance had sued the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, claiming improper procedures in developing the rule.?
Youngman is correct that CHAPA filed the lawsuit against DOI and NPS. It was filed in the federal court in Washington, D.C. Late last year, the judge in the case sent the lawsuit to the Eastern District of North Carolina. It was assigned to Boyle early this year.
It?s unsettling that the judge doesn?t know who filed a lawsuit that he is overseeing and whether the plaintiffs have legal standing.
On Boyle?s order, a schedule was agreed to it in the case earlier this year and amended in April.
The parties expect that the case will be decided on the administrative history and will not go to trial.
Attorneys for CHAPA filed a 50-page brief on a motion for summary judgment in the case on July 10. The federal defendants have until Sept. 10 to file their cross-motion for summary judgment, and the defendant-intervenors ? SELC and its clients ? have until Oct. 10 to file their cross-motion for summary judgment.
You can click here to read the CHAPA brief on the motion for summary judgment.
