One non-profit organization that does a great deal of good in Dare County found itself mired in controversy early this week because of its association with a conservation group that is suing to stop the Bonner Bridge replacement project.
And another may be heading in that direction after hiring a new executive director who was formerly employed by an environmental group that sued the National Park Service over its lack of an off-road vehicle regulation on the Outer Banks.
Public outrage began building on the Outer Banks, especially Hatteras Island, last weekend when word began spreading that participants in the Wings Over Water events had received permission to travel over the closed Bonner Bridge and Highway 12 on Pea Island for a program at the wildlife refuge headquarters.
By Monday, a plea to contact the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Congressional offices had gone viral on social media and by mass e-mails.
The message that went forward was that either the road is closed to the public or it?s open to the public. And if it?s open to the public, everyone should have access.
Adding fuel to the fire was the very thought that ?birders? were getting special access to the bridge and highway. Birders, unfortunately, have a bad reputation on Hatteras Island because of the National Audubon Society?s involvement with a new ORV plan for the seashore that is much more restrictive than most people think it should be.
Of course, not all birders are members of Audubon, and not all Wings over Water events are about birding. Wings Over Water was designed to be a ?shoulder season? event to bring folks to the Outer Banks to explore nature and the area?s natural beauty.
By mid-afternoon on Monday, the Wings Over Water organizers had announced that the programs were being relocated to other areas of the county.
The outrage has mostly subsided, but there are still folks who want answers.
Beth Midgett, chairperson of Dare County?s Citizens? Committee to Replace the Bonner Bridge, is one of them.
Midgett was unhappy that the Wings Over Water folks were getting special access to a closed public road, but when she did a little more digging into the group that sponsors the event, she was outraged.
The sponsor of Wings Over Water and the group that receives all of the profits from it is the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society.
The refuge society is a local group that does a lot of good in the county providing educational programs and trips for the public and schoolchildren at the area?s refuges, especially Alligator River and Pea Island.
However, it turns out that the society is an affiliate of the National Refuge Conservation Association, which is one of two groups suing the state and the federal government to stop the bridge replacement project.
And, it doesn?t stop there. The local refuge society is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit and in the Southern Environmental Law Center?s request to stop the state from issuing a major CAMA permit so the project can go forward.
That was news to many folks in the county, including some board members of the refuge society, who said they did not know of the involvement in the lawsuit.
However, the society?s current president, Stanley Oliver of Manteo, gave a deposition for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit in July, though he says he did it as a private citizen and not as a member of the society?s board.
?This is not the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society opposing the bridge,? he said. ?It?s me personally.?
In his deposition, Oliver did address his personal enjoyment of the refuge, but also identified himself as president of the board of the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society.
?As a member of the NWRA, the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society organizationally and I personally have interests that are directly, adversely, and irreparably injured by the actions of the defendants,? he testified. ?We believe that if the bridge project proceeds as currently planned (and as unplanned with regard to the road), it will harm our scientific, aesthetic, recreational, and spiritual interests in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and our ability to use and enjoy the Refuge with its beautiful, natural landscapes and wildlife.?
That sounds to me like the local refuge society opposes the bridge project.
Oliver and other board members note that the group is not political. And I don?t think they intended to be. In fact, I think it?s possible that members of the board did not realize the group was a named plaintiff in the lawsuit.
I think it is far more likely that a large, outside environmental organization, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, has used the local folks who want only to do good things in their effort to stop the bridge. And the national group probably doesn?t care that the local affiliate is now in a tenuous position to raise funds for good projects.
But Beth Midgett and others want an answer from the group ? do they or do they not oppose the bridge project, which is long overdue and a public safety issue?
And will the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society ask to be removed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit?
The other local philanthropic, non-profit organization that is walking a fine line these days is the Outer Banks Community Foundation.
The 30-year-old community foundation is a very well respected group that has raised and given away more than $4 million in grants to community groups and scholarships to local students.
Its long-time executive director, Barbara Bingham, is retiring later this year, and, after a search by a committee, the community foundation has hired a new executive director.
And here?s what could be the problem.
The new director is Lorelei Costa, who comes here from Anchorage, Alaska, where she spent five years as director of development and communications for Audubon Alaska.
There is little love lost in Dare County for the National Audubon Society, and on Hatteras Island there is an almost obsessive hatred for the group that was one of two environmental groups that sued the Park Service over its lack of an ORV plan on the seashore.
Many blame Audubon and Defenders of Wildlife for what they see as a drastic change in the historical and traditional access to the beaches and punitive access restrictions for ORVs and pedestrians.
?I know there will be some concern about that in Dare County, but especially on Hatteras Island,? Skipper Hines, president of the board of directors, said yesterday.
However, he said Costa was thoroughly vetted and questioned by the search committee, especially on her connection to Audubon.
Hines said she told the foundation members that she was not involved in, nor was she aware of, the situation on Hatteras Island and that she is more than willing to talk to the community about the issue when she arrives later this month.
According to Hines, Costa and her husband were ready to ?come back home? after their time in Alaska.
Lorelei Costa, he said, was born in Gloucester, Mass., but attended college in North Carolina and was employed in the state until the move to Alaska in 2007.
She earned a bachelor?s degree in American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, did post-graduate work at North Carolina State University, and was certified in non-profit management at Duke University.
Costa was an associate director and open spaces planner at the Triangle Land Conservancy from 1999 until 2004 and director of development for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust from 2004-2007. During her three years at the land trust, the group acquired Springer?s Point on Ocracoke Island to preserve it and save it from development.
Springer?s Point is thought by many to be one of the most striking natural areas along the state?s coastline. The preserve encompasses more than 120 acres of maritime forest, tidal red cedar forest, salt marsh, wet grasslands, and soundfront beach and was opened to the public in 2006.
Allen Burrus of Hatteras village, vice-chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, said he had a ?problem? with Costa?s hiring by the private foundation.
?When you say ?Audubon? to the people of Hatteras Island, they just throw up their hands,? he said.
And that?s not to mention the rather obscene signs and stickers that advise Audubon to ?identify this bird.?
Burrus, though, agreed that preserving Springer?s Point was a good move.
Perhaps others will also because Lorelei Costa deserves a chance in Dare County.
And I think we would all hate to see the Outer Banks Community Foundation, which has been such a positive force in the community for 30 years, hindered even the slightest bit in its work by its new executive director?s former employment.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Click here to read the deposition given by Stanley Oliver of Manteo, president of the board of the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society, in the lawsuit to stop the DOT plan to replace the Bonner Bridge. Oliver testified for the plaintiffs — Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association.
Wings Over Water website and information, including programs, http://www.wingsoverwater.org/.
Coast Wildlife Refuge Society information: http://www.coastalwildliferefuge.com/
To read the lawsuit to stop the Bonner Bridge replacement project:
http://islandfreepress.org/2011Archives/07.01.2011-Complaint%281%29.pdf
To read about SELC?s request for hearing on the Major CAMA permit:
http://islandfreepress.org/2012Archives/10.17.2012-EnvironmentalGroupsTakeAnotherRouteToStopBonnerBridgeReplacement.html
To learn more about the Outer Banks Community Foundation, go to http://www.obcf.org/home.htm
