Weary veterans of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore off-road vehicle wars are needed to share their experiences with supporters of access at Cape Lookout National Seashore, who are fighting their own battle with the Park Service over the proposed ORV plan there.
The North Carolina General Assembly has chosen to get more involved with the rulemaking at Cape Lookout than it was at Cape Hatteras, and the House of Representatives’ newly formed Select Committee on the use of Off-Road Vehicles on Cape Lookout National Seashore will have a public hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 16, from 1 until 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Roanoke Island Campus of the College of the Albemarle in Manteo.
The three-member committee was appointed in October by then Speaker of the House Thom Tillis to examine the effect of Cape Lookout’s proposed ORV rule on tourism and the economy. The chairwoman is Pat McElraft, an Emerald Island Republican, in whose district the Cape Lookout seashore is located. The other members are Reps. Chris Millis, R-Hampstead, and George Graham, D-Kinston.
McElraft said in an interview this week that she had not been following the Cape Lookout rulemaking process that carefully until Tillis asked her to take on the committee. Tillis, she said, learned about the rulemaking that is underway when several constituents came to Raleigh to talk to him about their fears about curtailed public access and impacts on the local economy if the proposed regulations become final.
She gladly took on the task and has gone to school in the Park Service’s rulemaking process.
There are many similarities between Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras seashores.
Like Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout did not have a formal ORV plan, as has been required by executive orders since the mid-1970s. And, also like Cape Hatteras, lawsuits by environmental groups forced the Park Service into formulating an off-road vehicle management plan there.
The two seashores share a barrier island terrain, with many miles of gorgeous beaches. They both have the dual mission of providing for public access and recreation while protecting nesting shorebirds and sea turtles. And they are both popular with visitors, especially fishermen and beachcombers, though visitation at Cape Lookout is much less than at Hatteras.
But they also have some significant differences. The slightly smaller Cape Lookout — with 56 miles of beaches — is much more remote.
Located in Carteret County, just south of Ocracoke, Cape Lookout National Seashore has no villages or paved roads. It is comprised of three barrier islands — North Core Banks, South Core Banks, and Shackleford Banks.
Access is by boat or ferry only. Passenger ferries travel to the seashore from Ocracoke and the mainland, and private ferry service — on very, very small boats — is available from several Carteret County towns.
There are rustic cabins for rent on Cape Lookout, and the park is very popular with fishermen who keep campers on the islands and travel over by passenger ferry to stay for a few days or a week while they look for fish, especially in the spring and fall.
The once thriving and now abandoned and restored village of Portsmouth and the Cape Lookout Lighthouse are popular with day trippers.
In some ways, off-road vehicles are even more important at Cape Lookout since there is not a highway to carry visitors there or to let them travel up and down the seashore.
Without ORVs, fishing and other forms of recreation would be limited to only the most intrepid and physically fit. Furthermore, the number of vehicles on the seashore is already greatly limited by the tiny ferries that carry only a few ORVs on each trip.
The Park Service began the ORV rulemaking at Cape Lookout several years ago, and last spring issued its Draft Off-Road Vehicle Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement.
Many of the proposed changes will sound familiar to those who live in or visit the Cape Hatteras seashore.
They include seasonal closures of ORV routes, expanded vehicle-free areas, a ban on night driving in the summer, permits, and limits on the number of permits issued, which is something that Cape Hatteras does not have — at least not yet.
Buffers for breeding and nesting birds and turtles and for chicks and hatchlings are also being proposed, but they are less restrictive than on Cape Hatteras. The Park Service says the buffers can be smaller because of the lower number of visitors.
Access advocates at both seashores generally do not object to the idea of an ORV plan, but in both cases, the plans are over the top. With pressure from environmental groups, park officials are providing many more protections for birds and turtles than is reasonable, sensible, and, in some cases, scientifically sound.
And these protections are also limiting public access in unnecessary ways — not only for drivers but also for pedestrians.
Tourism is key to Carteret’s economy, as is it in Dare, and the businesses that cater to fishermen and other tourists are fearful of the impact of the much stricter ORV rules on their livelihoods.
Environmental groups, on the other hand, don’t think the ORV restrictions go far enough, don’t think the buffers are big enough, and claim that limiting those nasty off-road vehicles will increase visitation.
The Southern Environmental Law Center and it compatriots are fond of pointing to occupancy tax figures to prove their case that the economy hasn’t been hurt on Hatteras and Ocracoke and that it won’t be at Cape Lookout.
But that’s not true. It hasn’t been true at Cape Hatteras and it won’t be at Cape Lookout.
That’s why the Select Committee is zeroing in on the economic impact of ORV rulemaking on tourism in the Cape Lookout area.
“We really want to get a true measure of the economic impact,” McElrath says.
She says that a representative of SELC came to the committee’s first hearing in late October in Morehead City to tout the increased occupancy tax revenues in Dare County.
McElrath understands that increased occupancy taxes do not tell the whole or true story.
Occupancy tax revenue in Dare was up 4.43 percent through September, but she said that other areas of the state and coast are seeing much larger increases — as much as 30 percent in some areas.
Furthermore, McElrath and others who track these things know that increased visitation isn’t the only thing that contributes to higher tax revenues. Some of it — maybe a good deal — is due to increasing rental costs.
She wants to see the state do its own economic impact study of the effect of the increased Park Service restrictions.
Although economic impact studies are part of the Park Service’s rulemaking, the studies for Cape Hatteras were severely flawed. The first one was a complete mess, and a second one, rushed along by seashore officials, was also inadequate.
Also we know anecdotally that small, locally owned businesses — especially those that cater to fishermen — are seeing revenues that are way down. We know that fewer fishermen are coming — especially in the spring and fall — because popular fishing beaches are closed for resource protection or off-limits to ORVs.
At the first Select Committee meeting in late October, local business owners, residents, and folks who represent recreational and sportfishing groups spoke about the impact that the proposed rules would have on visitation and the economy.
McElraft said that some members of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association came to the meeting to talk about what has happened at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
They suggested that the committee should visit Dare County and learn more and she thought that was a great idea.
At the Dec. 16 hearing, the committee will hear several presentations and gather testimony on the impact of the proposed rules on public access and the local economy.
The panel is especially interested in hearing from residents, business owners, and visitors to Cape Hatteras on how their lives and livelihoods have been affected since the park’s ORV plan became final in February 2012.
Jim Keene of Nags Head, a former NCBBA president who was active in the rulemaking process at Cape Hatteras, says access advocates who think the fight at Cape Lookout is not their fight, should think again.
“What does or does not happen at Cape Lookout will have an influence on our own five-year ORV Plan review,” he said in an e-mail.
According to a notice of the public hearing, the comment period will be limited to about 1 1/2 hours. Speakers must sign up and will be heard in the order in which they sign up.
You can sign up by notifying the committee clerk, Nancy Fox, at 919-733-6275 or by e-mail at mcelraftla@ncleg.net before 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12. Speakers may also sign up onsite before 2 p.m. on the day of the meeting.
Remarks will be limited to three minutes. Those who do not want to speak or who want to provide additional information for the public record can submit comments before 4 p.m.
The Park Service public comment period on the draft proposed rules ended on Sept. 19. McElraft said the state did submit comments.
There will be another public comment period when the final ORV rule is published next year.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Click here to read the notice of the House Select Committee’s meeting on Dec. 16.
Click here to see the Cape Lookout National Seashore Off-Road Vehicle Management Plan and Environment Impact Statement.
