Dave Hallac, the new superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, has been my guest several times on my Radio Hatteras interview show, “To the Point,” since he arrived here in early January.
And he will be the guest for my two new December interviews to talk about his first year as superintendent. The first interview will be broadcast on the first two Sundays in December — Dec. 6 and 13 — at 5 p.m. The second will be broadcast on the third and fourth Sundays — Dec. 20 and 27 — also at 5 p.m.
The first interview covers the biggest issue of his first year — meeting the requirements of legislation passed by Congress a year ago in December as part of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.
And Hallac also addresses a few other challenging issues he’s tackled, most notably stormwater — and lots of it. Although he didn’t have to deal with any land-falling tropical systems in his first year, he did face some of the worst flooding in many years in the area from Cape Point in Buxton and down to Ramp 49 in Frisco after torrential rains in late September and early October.
In the second interview, Hallac talks about the challenges of managing the Outer Banks Group of three parks — the seashore, the Wright Brothers National Memorial, and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. And he is joined by Lynne Belanich, the Bodie Island District Ranger who is also the Outer Banks Group’s coordinator for the 2016 Centennial celebration of the founding of the National Park Service.
I’m going to try to entice you to listen to the interviews — about 40 minutes each — by giving you some of the highlights from the first one in this blog.
The Congressional legislation wasn’t even being publicly discussed on Nov. 13, 2014 when the Park Service made the announcement that Hallac would succeed Barclay Trimble as the superintendent of the Outer Banks Group.
But on Dec. 12, the U.S. Senate voted to pass the Defense Authorization Act, already passed by the House, which included a public lands package of bills. One of those bills proposed making changes to how the Park Service manages off-road vehicles at the seashore.
Specifically, Congress asked the Secretary of the Interior to have the Park Service re-examine wildlife protection buffers and provide corridors when it could; to speed up the construction of ORV infrastructure, such as ramps and parking lots and interdunal roads, and to undertake a public process that would re-examine the times that beaches open, the dates for seasonal closures, and the size and location of vehicle-free areas.
So when Hallac officially arrived for his new job in early January, he already had a full plate — much fuller than he probably anticipated.
The Secretary was also instructed to report back to Congress after a year on the progress that the Park Service had made on the changes. Hallac said that report is due on Dec. 19, and the Park Service is working to prepare Secretary Sally Jewell to deliver it.
“It will be brief and will hit the highlights,” he said, adding that after the Secretary delivers it, the report will be released to the public.
Hallac thinks that meeting the requirements of the legislation has gone well for several reasons. The Park Service received clear direction from Congress, he says. He also had terrific support from the seashore’s internal team and “great” input from the community, the public, and seashore user groups, which, he says, were “engaging, thoughtful, and generous with their time.”
On June 16, the seashore met a 180-day deadline and released environmental documents making changes to wildlife buffers and adding corridors.
All of the changes did not go into effect this year because the park requires additional staff members to monitor nesting. The seashore, Hallac said, is in the process of hiring monitors now for the coming season.
Before the storms last fall, the NPS did provide additional vehicle and pedestrian corridors in front of about 16 sea turtles nests. This spring, he said, the use of corridors in front of certain American oystercatcher nests could keep areas, such as Cape Point, open longer. For instance, if the new distances had been effective last spring, ORV access to the Point would have remained open three to four weeks past the April 7 closing.
Hallac also said the new buffer distances for piping plovers may give pedestrians more access to the Cape Point area this summer.
So while buffers were modified to allow more access, there are still protections for turtles and birds that will close ORV routes during the summer nesting season, especially in such areas as Cape Point.
As far as infrastructure, the seashore has used staff and additional funding from the Southeast Regional Office to finish the parking area at the new Ramp 25, build a new Ramp 32 with a 16-vehicle parking area and pedestrian trail, and complete Ramp 48, along with a mile of the “Inside Road” that will eventually connect the Cape Point and the Frisco areas.
The rest of the Inside Road should be finished by the first of February, and a contractor has been hired to build a new Ramp 63 on Ocracoke, which should be open for the summer season.
The last part of the legislation will require changes to the seashore’s final rule on ORV use, a process that is more complicated and time consuming.
The seashore added two new changes to the three already required by the legislation. So now being considered are opening times for beaches, dates for seasonal routes, size and location of vehicle-free areas, the length of time for which an ORV permit is valid, and a few more smaller access improvements, such as primitive parking areas for more soundside access on Ocracoke.
The Park Service conducted five public scoping meetings and received suggestions from the public on the changes in August. Hallac said the Park Service received comments from 1,800 people during and after the meetings.
Hallac said the seashore will release a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) with its alternatives for the changes early in 2016. Again, the park will have five public scoping meetings and accept public review.
A final EA could be finished in late spring or early summer, but then the Park Service must undertake the process of proposing and finalizing a new ORV rule, which could take many more months. Hallac didn’t speculate on when the whole rulemaking changes might be finished.
Finally, Hallac did address the stormwater problem that exists in the area of the Cape Point Campground, the road to the campground, and Ramps 43 and 44 in Buxton and Ramp 49 in Frisco.
Until the Park Service received a notice of violation from the state for draining wetlands, the seashore staff just opened up drains and let the stormwater flow back into the ocean just west of Ramp 45. That pretty much took care of the flooding problem.
After the 2004 letter, the seashore just stopped draining the area, and heavy rains and coastal storm flooding has been a headache ever since.
Though park users have complained loudly, the Park Service has never really done anything about it until this fall when Hallac began digging into the matter.
He located the September 2004 letter from the state’s Division of Water Quality.
What the state apparently wanted from the Park Service was a plan for how it was going to handle draining the wetlands between Buxton and Frisco, and, as Hallac found out, in late 2004, the Park Service, under then Superintendent Larry Belli, submitted a plan for just that.
Hallac then located Robert Tankard, the Division of Water Quality engineer who signed the 2004 letter. Hallac and Tankard, who works out of the Washington, N.C., office of the state’s aquifer protection services and other staff members toured the flooding in the Cape Point area.
The state, Hallac says he was told, does not “permit” federal agencies to drain wetlands but would like to work with the Park Service on a plan for managing stormwater issues in the sensitive maritime area.
Hallac has also been in touch with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which, he says, may have to permit any plans the park comes up with.
This winter, he said, seashore staff will continue to pursue the issue with the state Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps.
There is no doubt that manmade structures — from the dunes that were constructed in the 1930s to the Cape Point campground — have changed the hydrology of the area. But correcting the problem is much more complicated than it might seem by such issues as state and federal laws and Park Service policies.
“I’m not promising anything,” Hallac said, “because my guess is that this will become more complicated before it becomes clearer. But we’re going to do our best to make improvements.”
I’m sure Dave Hallac has his detractors — as has every superintendent at the seashore in recent memory. However, I also believe there are many more of us who are impressed with his energy, his enthusiasm, and his willingness to listen to seashore users, both on the island and off.
Furthermore, his energy and enthusiasm seem to filter down to staff members of the Outer Banks group.
Many of us can’t remember a time when communication between the park and the people has been as good as it has become under Hallac’s leadership — and we hope it continues into 2016.
And, yes, you will have to listen to the second interview for now to find out the many plans that the Park Service has in mind for its centennial celebration — from international dark sky designation for the seashore to paddle trails on the soundside of the islands.
As we get into the new year, The Island Free Press and Radio Hatteras will be bringing you much more information on the Centennial and how you can participate.
LISTENING TO THE INTERVIEWS
“To the Point” is broadcast on Radio Hatteras, 101.5 FM, on Sundays at 5 p.m. You can listen live on the radio on southern Hatteras Island or you can stream the program live wherever you are by going to the website, www.radiohatteras.org. The audio will also be posted on The Island Free Press a few days after each show is first broadcast.
