Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Mike Murray is the most accessible park leader that I have covered in 18 years of reporting news on Hatteras and Ocracoke.
You may agree with the actions he takes or the direction in which he takes the seashore ? or you may not. Some think Murray is held hostage by the Department of Interior solicitors who have more to say than he does about the management of the seashore ? especially after environmental groups filed a lawsuit over off-road vehicle access on the seashore in 2007.
But the fact remains that this man is accessible by phone and by e-mail, really seems to endorse transparency in park actions, and has remained calm and patient despite all the grief that has come his way since he took over as superintendent in December, 2005. Indeed, he has been squeezed by ORV access groups, environmental groups, lawyers, business people, residents, and who knows who else, and he always remains poised, answering questions ? some quite ill-informed — with respect and as much detail as he can.
Granted that this is his job, but I think, he is good for the seashore.
Murray has been meeting with local reporters in ?media roundtables? since the beginning of his administration in the park. We meet about three or four times a year. Sometimes he calls us to meet, and sometimes we call him to remind him it?s time to meet.
Sometimes, there?s a lot on his agenda and on ours. Sometimes, not.
Murray brings along various seashore staff, depending on his agenda and the questions we let him know we will ask.
Cyndy Holda, his administrative assistant and the park?s community liaison, always attends. Often he brings the assistant superintendent ? now Darrell Nichols ? who is the day-to-day management person on budgets and other matters. Sometimes he bring the park?s natural resources staff.
Last week, he brought Holda; Paul Stevens, who has been a law enforcement ranger for the Outer Banks Group since 1989 and was recently named chief ranger, and Dennis McGuiness, an Outer Banks native who is the new seashore maintenance chief.
Our meeting with Murray last week was one of the shortest yet ? just an hour and 10 minutes.
On the agenda were recent modifications in the court-ordered consent decree, the timeline for the development of an Environmental Impact Statement and an ORV rule for the seashore, and a flurry of maintenance projects now underway or about to get underway in the park.
On the modifications, Murray addressed the change in consent decree language to specify that after Sept. 15, the remaining unhatched sea turtle nests will require a full beach closure, prohibiting through access, only from sunset until 6 a.m. Last year, the unhatched nests got full beach closures 24 hours a day.
Murray said it was unlikely that his staff could handle changing the closures twice a day for all of the nests that haven?t hatched. Last year there were about 36.
?The benefit,? he said, ?is that in mid-September when the nests haven?t hatched but it?s the height of the fall surf fishing season,? park staff can provide daytime access at popular surf fishing areas ? such as the Points and spits.
The modifications to the consent decree also addressed the penalties for intentional violations of pre-nesting areas or buffers. The Park Service will not be required to expand a buffer for vandalism if the violator is apprehended, either by the work of the Park Service law enforcement staff or through information from the public. If the buffer has been expanded and then the violator is caught, the Park Service can retract the expansion.
The impetus behind this change is to spur the public to report what they know about the violators.
Stevens said there were six intentional violations last year, and there have been three this year. All but one involved damage to stakes and symbolic fencing. In one case, a least tern egg was crushed.
There are no leads in any of the cases, Stevens said.
The Park Service is working with Dare County Crime Line on all violations on the seashore, including Ocracoke Island, which is in Hyde County. One reason, Stevens said, that the park hooked up with Crime Line is that people were calling who wanted to donate funds for rewards.
?Rather than us reinventing the wheel,? he said, ?we decided to go with Crime Line.
Also, he said, some people want to report information but don?t want to come forward. The public can report information to Crime Line anonymously and still receive a reward if the crime is solved.
If you have any information on violations, you can contact Dare County Crime Line at 473-3111 or 1-800-745-2736.
Murray and Stevens also said that the park is in the process of organizing a program that would be like a ?beach watch,? manned by citizen volunteers, who would be stationed at key ramps and would be the Park Service?s ?eyes and ears? for nighttime violators as well as problems during the day.
They said they expect to ask for volunteers and conduct training sessions in the fall.
Stevens also noted that for the first time in some years, the Park Service law enforcement contingent is fully staffed. That includes five law enforcement rangers in the Bodie Island District, seven on Hatteras, and four on Ocracoke. There are three positions at park headquarters, including Stevens? former position, which is not filled. He hopes to fill it with a ranger who would specialize in wildland wildfire management.
McGuiness updated reporters on the progress of the projects now underway or about to be underway in the park. They include such things as rehabilitating the Ocracoke Lighthouse, restoring the Bodie Island Lighthouse Lens, repairing fences at the Ocracoke Pony Pens, and installing new picnic tables and grills at all of the campgrounds and the Salvo Day Use Area.
The $2.6 million in funds for the projects, which will be completed this summer and fall, come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the National Park Service (NPS), and Eastern National.
Murray also summarized the timeline for completing an Environmental Impact Statement and issuing a rule on ORV management on the seashore.
This is what he said:
A contractor is now doing an impact analysis, evaluating the five alternatives ? alternatives A through E — already proposed by the park and perhaps a sixth alternative F, which the negotiated rulemaking committee failed to reach agreement on. This analysis, he said, will be ?the guts of the EIS.?
It will address all issues from wildlife and resource protection to socio-economic impacts and recreation to costs.
Murray said the deadline for receiving the analysis is ?fluid? but he hopes it will be finished this summer.
Next the Park Service will discuss the alternatives internally ? at local, regional, and national levels — and choose its preferred alternative and the environmentally preferred alternative, which, Murray said, could be the same or different.
He said he is aiming for the release of a draft EIS in late fall. There will be a 60-day public comment period, including public meetings on the Outer Banks and in other cities, such as Raleigh, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.
The Park Service will also have to submit the preferred alternative to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a biological opinion.
Finally, there will be a record of decision issued, which Murray said would have a 30-day public comment period.
This is an ambitious timetable.
The consent decree requires that the ORV management plan be completed by Dec. 31, 2010 and promulgated by special regulation by April 1, 2011.
The federal bureaucracy doesn?t work this quickly as a rule and certainly did not when it came to deciding to use the negotiated rulemaking process and implementing it. That process dragged on for several years.
I hope Mike Murray has the attention of his superiors in Washington to get this EIS and rulemaking on the fast track.
If I were Mike Murray or any of his bosses in D.C., I would not want to appear before federal district court Judge Terrence W. Boyle and tell him why it couldn?t be done on time ? after all these years.
Thanks for posting this, Irene. What really irritates me about Mike Murray is that both here and in his remarks at the annual NCBBA meeting he expressed no personal opinion, no shred of humanity, no sympathy for the loss of use of the park by the American taxpaying public. I understand that he?s thinks he?s being a good bureaucrat and that he lives in terror of the litigious envirowhackos. But he gets paid the same wage if a million people visit his park or if 100 do so just once I?d like him to address what motivation, if any at all, he has to reopen the beaches. WHERE IS YOUR HEART, MIKE MURRAY?
My letter to Secretary Salazar should have arrived on his desk today. I pleaded with him to rush the plan along. And I thank Mike Murray for his ambitious schedule.
I have worked with and observed many public administrators in my day and I have watched Mike Murray in action for the past two years. I do not always agree with Mike but I rank him very high in professional demeanor, technical competence, and his commitment to public service. Mike does not set policy, he implements it, one political administration at a time, based on highly complex and unsettled law as he can best understand it.
For those of you who have never served in government with serious purpose and find it convenient and stylish to criticize even competent civil servants, all I can say is, try it sometime, you might get different view of the world. Unless we have competent people in government, we are not going to have a good government.
I too do not always like what NPS does at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area. All I ask is that our public administrators like Mike be honest and polite to the public. Mike has been just that, honest, patient, and tactful.
Mike has enough time in service he could probably retire from this nightmare of a ORV planning process. I hope he stays the course and keeps things on schedule so we the people he serves can get our national seashore back.
Mike Berry says (above) ?.{Quote)?”so we the people can get our national seashore back?” (Unquote). Well, Mike, I?ve got news for you?the people of Hatteras Island; and, indeed, all of the Outer Banks sold out “their rights” to “our seashore” years ago (not when they got $15 per acre), but, when they begin prostituting “our lands? for the sake of tourist dollars. Frankly, if I hear Carol Dillon and a few others spout off about what Conrad Wirth said 60 years ago, I?ll scream. What does Dillion, et.al. think Wirth and the residents of Hatteras Island from 60 years ago, would say if they could see today what we have done to the Outer Banks Does she think Wirth and/or her ancestors envisioned the carnival atmosphere that exists on the island and beaches today? Dillion, and others want the seashore back; not for the sake of days of ole, but for the sake of making more money off tourists. The whole crappy mess stinks. Instead of being thankful that the U.S. Park Service has protected this beautiful environment for dozens of years from overdevelopment; they want to condemn them because they can no longer bend over backward for us. The park service nor the environmentalists are the problem. Access is not the problem. The problem is EXCESS AND GREED; and it has reached its boiling point. Learn to live with it.
Interesting comment Ray. I happen to agree in part with your “EXCESS AND GREED” point. However, I would also add “SPECIAL INTEREST.” But I really do not expect to see many of those “Midgett” real estate and business signs come down out there anytime soon. And I do plan to help Beth Midgett push for a new safe bridge to Hatteras Island which in part will maintain the local economy based in large part on tourism . And I would like to take my three city bound grandchildren to the national seashore when I can have safe access that currently does not exist. And I hope you don?t mind.
And finally Ray, the current situation out there is a national disgrace and I have no intention to “live with it.”
If only we had been so viligent years ago, when anyone with a dollar knocked on our doors, the Outer Banks would be a better place today. I?m still not sure that all locals can accept (or understand) that lifestyles, better than their grandparents, has come at a high price. We allowed paradise to become paved with beach blankets and wall-to-wall 4?4?s, while taking our money to the bank. It?s not too late to get our bed(s) more comfortable, we have to, for it?s still the bed(s) we must sleep in. And, I am comfident we will get our bridge and our children will always be able to access our seashore. What I?m not confident about is how natural that seashore will be down the road. And, speaking of “Midgetts”?they, like Tilletts, Scarboroughs, Grays, Etheridges, etc. are forever lost somewhere in the pages of the lates version of the Outer Banks phonebook.
A very nice comment Ray, I agree with most of your feelings.
Let?s work to bring about a management plan that provides an appropriate level of order, responsible access, and use to our natural seashore environment.
In accepting the way things are?however much I do not like them? I look to people like Mike Murray to help us manage what we have remaining in a responsible and equitable manner. He has a tough job and we should give him all the help we can to see that it is done in the interest of our grandchildren as well as the local community and visiting public.
Best wishes
Mike Berry
I for one do not envy Mike Murray?s position. The problem with NPS is that it?s power has been centralized in the bureaucracies in DC where special interests rein supreme. The parks should be under local management, and managed to reflect the nature of the land and the people who live there. The founding documents even state that. NPS has taken on a “one size fits all” approach, and that approach is being dictated.
Ray I?ve been coming down since 1967 when I was young. I?ve seen lot?s of changes. One thing I often hear that I don?t completely agree with is the “without the park everything would look like Nags Head”. Without the park, Nags Head wouldn?t look like Nags Head. Nags Head is built up because it is the park entrance, Gatlinburg in Tennessee is similarly built up because it is the entrance to Great Smokey Mountains Park. People have to remember without the federal money and the park when would the Wright Memorial bridge have been upgraded from the wood plank bridge built in the 30?s to the concrete one able to carry larger volumes and then later expanded? When would the Bonner Bridge have been built if at all?
If primary access to the island was still by ferry you would not see much development. What would the island look like? I honestly can?t say, but it would be very different.
Typical or atypical, I admit to being turned off by local clamation on Hatteras Island over the ORV issue long ago. Reaction there continues to remind me of the “special interest” beach nourishment proponents on the northern beaches, who, a couple years ago, started putting ads in the newspapers saying, “Come watch our beaches disappear!”. They were cutting off their noses to spite their face. For that and more obvious reasons, they lost and continue to lose the battle of their desire(s).
To wit: The “Preserve Beach Access” website, paid for with local tax funds is going nowhere. It gets very few hits and IMHO has accomplished little, except, perhaps to scare people away from Hatteras Island. Also, to wit: visit the OBX Connection forum and you will see a medium size handfull of hardcore activists (for lack of a better word) hammering away hourly about this issue. Perhaps it?s time Outer Banks activists (includiing myself) took their own vacation.
Ray. without trying to go to the trouble of telling you where, why and how wrong you are on this issue I will only say that the respect I used to have for you is gone, gone, gone.Stay in Southern Shores north of Oregon Inlet and feed on your own self righteousness.
Mike Murray is a good manager and does his job honorably and honestly. The appointment of Paul Stevens is a very positive move. The situation on Hatteras is correctable if only there were common sense used.
But now I Ray with DOW?, SELC and Audubon
In order to grade Supt. Murray’s tenure, you have to compare him to the people who have held his post in the recent past.
It was a scary time, the revolving door of superintendents, each with a specific task. Moving the Lighthouse and 1st Flight Centennial are the prime examples. Add that to an entrenched staff mentality and you have bad management.
Now we have Supt. Murray. His task is to finally regulate ORV use in the seashore.
Of course he takes orders from above, we all do. You can’t fault the man for following orders. That emotion needs to be directed over his head not on it.
Mike Murray may well be the nail in the coffin for recreational access in the seashore but I will place that blame well above him.
Personally I like the man. My dealings with him have convinced me that he is trying to sort things out after 37 years of inattention
I have no emotional or $$$ agenda in this issue, Frank. And, until everyone, yourself included, can bring those two into proper perspective, the ORV matter will continue stink up the beaches of Hatteras Island.
Right, Ray, no sense in getting all emotional about well-funded environmental groups coming in and shutting down large sections of the park, damaging the local economy, and trampling our rights in the bargain. Yep, let?s all just kick back and rest on our…. err, um…..’ laurels’, as I am sure these special interest groups are not really serious about all this stuff and will tire of their efforts soon and just go away.
And to anyone who believes their agenda will simply stop at the borders of the CHNSRA , I have a whole truck load of carbon credits I am willing to sell them. And in the future they may be singing a completely different tune if a Piping Plover happens to be discovered nesting on their own private property.
I really have no business commenting except for the fact that I was in a conversation last week about the ?beach closings?. I am from Georgia and this is the first time we have been here in 10 years. We had a great time, found everyone very helpful, dragged our gear and dogs from the parking lot to the beach. I have seen the ?tourism? industry destroy Destin Fl and watch as St George Island tries to hold back the ?developers?. I hope somehow you can strike a balance here. I know people have to make a living but don?t let $$$$ sink the whole deal.
Bravo, Mr. Midgett. A lot of locals feel the way you do, but don?t have the guts to speak up. And why would they, what with wanted posters, and all the other garbage thrown at people who disagree with the loudest faction on the island?
Southern Shores is over an hour from most of HI.I don?t think that makes Mr. Midgett a local of HI.I know he is trying to sound good for all the SS transplants, so they will vote him into town council,but I don?t know how well that will work after he tried to block the dredging of the canals.
Let?s talk ?Ray Midgett? for a little bit.
Ray opposes ?beach nourishment? because he and his friends like to comb the beaches with ?metal detectors? looking for lost treasure. Covering the beach with new sand would end his quest. Too bad, that is no reason to destroy an Island economy, when the tourists leave for lack of beach.
You have shown again what a small mind you have, Mr. Jim Harris, a.k.a. ?Longcaster? and whatever else you called yourself. You need to find things you know something about before you pull the trigger on your tongue. If you want to discuss beach nourishment, stop by my house anytime. You know where I live. Otherwise, folks might like it better if you would stick to the topic at hand.