Kym Hall, acting superintendent of the National Park Service’s Outer Banks Group, accepted an invitation to come down to Cape Point this morning and have a first-hand look at access issues at Cape Point.
Cape Point reopened to ORVs disappointingly late this year — not until Aug. 26. It had been closed since April 2 for pre-nesting and then nesting shorebirds. Then, as the shorebirds were clearing out for the season, two turtle nests that were expanded as they approached their expected date of hatching cut off access until later than ever before in the nesting season.
Since the Point reopened, there have been several access issues just as the fall fishing season was getting underway. And, by all reports, the fall fishing has been really great.
The beach from Ramp 44 to Cape Point has seen serious erosion in recent months and is now very narrow — more so than usual. The Park Service created a detour of sorts behind the dunes to help ORV drivers navigate the very narrowest area — appropriately known as The Narrows.
However, even that was not enough to allow vehicle access during last month’s very high flood tides, caused by an approaching full moon and very big swells from a low pressure far out in the north Atlantic. The beach was pretty much impassable at high tides off and on for some time.
And, even though some ORV routes, including the one to the Point, are now open to night driving, another turtle nest just north of Ramp 44 that is ready to hatch and has been expanded to the tideline has caused a temporary closure to night driving. To keep turtle hatchlings from being disoriented by headlights heading off the beach at the ramp, the Park Service has closed the route from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m.
Access advocacy groups, locals, and our visiting fishermen would really like the Park Service to address these access issues.
Can the “bypass” around the Narrows be expanded slightly to make it a little longer so folks can get around the area at most — if not all — higher tides? Can nests be relocated so that expansion at hatching does not close ORV access? Can the ORV route be altered in some way or can other measures be taken to protect hatchlings without night-driving bans?
So Hall accepted an invitation to come to Buxton today to have a look. She came alone and rode with me in my ORV out to the Point, along with Island Free Press photographer Don Bowers. We met John Couch at the bypass. John is president of the Outer Banks Preservation Association, which advocates for more public access for all user groups, though he told Hall he was there today as an islander and a Buxton business owner.
We looked at the bypass area, rode behind the dunes, explained how the topography of the beach there has changed in the past 20 or 30 years, and headed out to Cape Point to talk while we watched a larger-than-usual number of anglers catching bluefish and dreaming of the next run of drum.
Hall listened and asked questions. She made no promises, but said she would take the concerns and suggestions back to the park staff.
Hall made it to Ocracoke yesterday to have a look at some of the problems on that island.
One of them is the pitiful parking situation at the Ocracoke Lighthouse that hasn’t changed a bit, despite attempts by numerous superintendents over the years.
Another is access to South Point, especially soundside areas there that no longer have much access to the calmer Pamlico Sound shoreline, popular with some fishermen, families with small children, and watersports enthusiasts.
During her Ocracoke trip, she said she was being driven around by a park ranger and encouraged him to tell her about what he thought worked and didn’t work under the seashore ORV management plan that was implemented in February 2012.
This is the role that she says she had chosen for herself during the short time that she will be the seashore’s leader.
She arrived in early August to oversee the seashore after superintendent Barclay Trimble left to take a new job as deputy director of the Southeast Region in Atlanta.
Her departure date, she said today, is Dec. 5. She will return to Glacier National Park in Montana where she is deputy superintendent and where she has a family that includes three boys from ages 5 up to “almost 18.”
The Park Service is in the process of choosing a new superintendent for the Outer Banks Group, and she indicated today that NPS management might have made a choice or at least be close to it. However, she said that the process is moving more slowly than it normally might because NPS is currently juggling a lot of leadership changes and movement in the ranks.
Hall says she is not a candidate for superintendent here and mentions in passing that she was recruited to come here in the interim by Trimble.
She said she was not given an agenda by her superiors when she was offered the acting superintendent job here. All they told her, she said, was to come here and do what she could to heal the community after the very divisive process of formulating the ORV plan.
She has met with some local business people and community leaders. She has met with a representative of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association and will probably meet with other groups advocating more access before she leaves.
She mentioned also that she has had a conversation with several representatives from environmental groups — at their request.
She has several major projects that she has to keep moving — beach restoration in Buxton, permitting whatever solution might come out of negotiations between the state’s Department of Transportation and environmental groups to replace the Bonner Bridge, and laying the groundwork for the five-year review of the ORV management plan in 2017.
She seems very committed to building relationships and bridges in the community, and she seems to be doing it in a very casual way and without fanfare. She drove herself to Buxton this morning, didn’t bring any staff, and seemed eager to talk and to listen.
She asked a lot of questions of us and, for sure, she was — as John Couch noted — “a good listener.”
She planned a quick lunch over which she needed to return phone calls and had another meeting with a member of the community — one who has been very outspoken and unhappy about how the Park Service is managing the seashore but who is now apparently one of Hall’s admirers.
The four of us spent an hour or more talking on the beach at Cape Point on this perfect fall morning — sunny, warm but not hot, with a light breeze.
One of Hall’s first observations was that the Park Service is managing a very dynamic and constantly changing seashore with rules that are sometimes not very flexible at all.
Don Bowers, right after he met her, began talking about the permitting system — that it should be more flexible and accommodating to what locals and visitors most need. He doesn’t like that permits are for a calendar year, not a year from when they are issued. And, he noted, many regular visitors want more than a one-week permit but don’t need and don’t want to pay for an annual permit.
“We’ve identified that as one of the biggest complaints and problems,” she said.
Hall has already gathered park staff to talk about other ways to handle permits — everything from what different kinds should be offered to how they should be sold. For instance, she said, the staff has talked about whether it would be feasible to have businesses, such as tackle shops, sell ORV permits, as well as fishing licenses.
This morning’s conversation ranged from permits to hours of ORV operation to beach fires, buffers, nesting success, and relocating turtle nests.
She talked about the five-year review in general terms. There is nothing set in stone about how it needs to be or will be done, she said.
However, she said some who are eager to make changes might be disappointed that whatever — if any — major alterations are proposed won’t happen quickly.
“We will need a full five seasons of (nesting) data,” she said, upon which to base any actions.
The seashore won’t have the five seasons of data until the fall of 2015. That would push preparing any proposals for changes into late 2016 or early 2017. Then she said that it takes about 18 months or so to for any proposed changes to the plan to go through the process of public comment, scrutiny, and rulemaking. By then it will be late 2016 or early 2017.
Realistically, she said that “we’re looking at the summer of 2018.”
“We’ve started asking ourselves the questions of what’s working and what’s not,” said Hall, who has encouraged the staff to look at “the low-hanging fruit.”
By that, Hall means changes that can be accomplished with a minimum of bureaucratic hassle and red tape. However, so many nitty-gritty details of the ORV management plan were written into the final rule that there isn’t a lot of low-hanging fruit.
Meanwhile, seashore managers can also look at ways to analyze the data they already have.
“We have a lot of data,” she said, “but we don’t have anyone to analyze it.”
Hall also emphasized that her opinion is “what we don’t need is another Environmental Impact Statement.” That is something that she believes would be “bad for everyone.”
She said her goal is to leave some recommendations for the new superintendent on how the plan might work going into the future.
However, they will be only that — recommendations.
I like much of what Hall had to say this morning, especially the kinds of questions she asked of us. But she will not be the superintendent leading us into the future of ORV planning.
I like her practical, commonsense approach to moving forward and healing our community of residents, business owners, and long-time visitors.
I like that she talked a lot about finding “commonalities” to give all of us who want to use the seashore the best possible experience. However, we have learned that this is not an easy task.
At the end of the day, I like what she said enough to wish that she could be staying.
But, since that won’t happen, I like the idea that she will be leaving her thoughts about what she has learned for the seashore’s next leader.
SUNDAY NEWS HOUR ON RADIO HATTERAS
On “To the Point” this Sunday — Oct. 19 — at 5 p.m. on Radio Hatteras, I am interviewing long-time commercial fisherman Jeff Oden of Hatteras village about the many challenges facing those who fish for a living.
Following the interview, Tom Hranicka will share some news on the new flood insurance rate maps.
Tune in to Radio Hatteras at 99.9 and 101.5 FM. The audio of the interviews is also available the next week on the Island Free Press website.
