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Urge the Park Service to protect Cape Hatteras National Seashore from damaging off-road vehicle use!

What you can do:

Send a letter to Cape Hatteras Superintendent Larry Belli urging the Park Service to develop an official management plan for ORV use in the park and immediately implement appropriate closures to prevent deaths of nesting shorebirds.

Close call: ORV tracks within inches of a least tern nest (note the camouflaged egg in the center of the photo)

Background

From historic lighthouses and old shipwrecks, to graceful sea turtles and nearly 400 species of visiting birds, many of which are threatened and endangered, Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a national treasure like no other.

Stretched over 70 miles of barrier islands in North Carolina, Cape Hatteras is one of the premier nesting locations for migratory birds in the region due to its location on the Eastern Flyway, varied habitats, and strong winds and storms that often bring exhausted vagrants to the shore. This area is a critical feeding and resting stopover spot for migratory shorebirds, and provides critical habitat as an important wintering location for many species – including the threatened least tern.

This magnificent area is currently threatened by off-road vehicles (ORV). Moreover, there is currently no plan in place to manage ORV users and to mitigate their impact on the birds (such as the threatened least tern), sea turtles (including the endangered leatherback turtle), and other animals that live or nest on this protected landscape.

For additional information please click here.

Important!

Comments containing personal experiences with ORVs and how these machines negatively impact your preferred use of the park will carry more weight with the Park Service. So, please add your own thoughts at the start of the letter.

With your help we are making the difference!

-Bluewater Network

RE:

Dear

(Add your personal comments above. They will appear at start of letter)

I am concerned that Cape Hatteras National Seashore does not have a formal plan for off-road vehicle use in the park. Although there can be many different kinds of uses of our national parks, unregulated, damaging, and dangerous use is unacceptable. I urge the Park Service to develop an official management plan with consideration of the needs of the park and all park visitors.

 

Specifically, I was deeply disturbed when I read that two least tern chicks were recently crushed when off-road vehicles purposely drove through a marked nesting enclosure. Sadly, these fatalities were not isolated events. Over the years other birds and emerging sea turtle hatchlings have been crushed and killed by ORVs and their habitats and nesting areas destroyed. The Seashore is failing to take the necessary steps to help ensure that these kinds of incidents do not continue. In fact, just this June the Seashore opened a bird closure that within days resulted in the death of two endangered piping plover chicks.

 

The Seashore should work with park enthusiasts, recreation and scientific specialists, and park advocacy organizations to develop, finalize, and publicize a formal management plan that protects and conserves Cape Hatteras’ endangered and threatened species and their habitat. The plan should also conserve natural objects, scenery and aesthetics, primitive wilderness areas, and wildlife, and ensure that the same will be unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. The park can use this management plan to educate park visitors on how to minimize their impacts on the park both for the protection of resources and so others are also able to enjoy the park. As they develop this formal plan, the Seashore should maintain indefinitely the closures recently enacted to protect nesting shorebirds to ensure that no more birds are killed and end the degradation of critical habitat.

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

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Additional Information

RIDING AMOK WITHOUT A PLAN
Cape Hatteras National Seashore has no formal, enforceable management plan in place for off-road vehicle use. Without an official ORV plan, even the most conscientious off-roader has no defined rules to help guide them, and there is no effective mechanism in place to prevent irresponsible ORV users from wreaking havoc on the Seashore.

For years, officials have relied on a piece-meal, informal approach to ORV use at the Seashore that allows rampant abuse by ORV users and has resulted in severe degradation of the delicate habitat of the threatened and endangered species found in the park. This approach is inadequate and legally insufficient:

The unmanaged ORV use violates the federal Endangered Species Act because it does not conserve endangered and threatened species and was implemented without consultation for all affected species with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The absence of a formal, publicized ORV management plan violates Executive Orders and federal regulations regarding ORV use within the National Park system.
The informal authorization does not protect Cape Hatteras’ natural resources and, consequently, violates the Organic Act of 1916, the General Authorities Act of 1970, the legislation establishing the park, several Executive Orders, and Park Service management policies.

Unregulated ORV use allows harmful recreational activities by a minority of the park users. This use impacts wildlife nesting areas and feeding areas, destroys nests and the vegetation that shelters animals, and reduces food supplies by damaging and destroying coastal vegetation. Recently, ORV use has been so poorly managed that extreme examples of improper ORV use have occurred, including:

Last year, one person was killed and another injured when a combination of underage drinking and recklessness resulted in an ORV accident at Cape Hatteras. Better management and control over the area can help prevent these kinds of senseless accidents in the future.
In 2003, the National Park Service recorded 105 incidents of ORVs entering posted bird closures.
This June, two least tern chicks were crushed when off-road vehicles purposely drove through a marked nesting enclosure. Despite signs stating that ORVs were banned from the area, the drivers of three sport utility vehicles drove up to a bird enclosure filled with nesting least terns, took the line down, removed the posts, and drove through the enclosure. The drivers repeated this procedure at the other end of the 1,000-foot-long enclosure. Between the rows of tracks, 11 nests had avoided being crushed, but it was difficult to tell how many others had been destroyed.
Most recently, the park opened a known shorebird nesting area to off-road vehicles on July 22. Just two days later, two chicks were killed by an ORV. The Seashore failed to follow its mandates and as a result two chicks protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act are dead.

FINDING A WORKABLE SOLUTION FOR ALL
Bluewater Network along with other national park supporters and conservationists filed a petition requesting the National Park Service to regulate the use of off-road vehicles in Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Such proactive efforts by the Park Service are needed to protect the character of the park and the threatened and endangered species that live there, and to provide certainty to park visitors about where and when ORV use is permitted.

A formal ORV management plan will ensure that all visitors receive information about the regulations and provide management guidelines for staff to ensure that there is no confusion. This will help reduce direct harm to the Seashore’s rich wildlife, and will enhance the quality of all visitor experiences.

Specifically, we urge Cape Hatteras National Seashore undertake the following actions:

Initiate a formal process in cooperation with the Fish and Wildlife Service to complete requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
Work with park enthusiasts, recreation and scientific specialists, and park advocacy organizations to develop, finalize, and publicize a formal ORV management plan that provides for the protection and conservation of the endangered and threatened species, as well as designated critical habitat. The plan should also conserve natural objects, scenery, and wildlife and ensure that the same will be unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations, prohibit ORV use in any area where such use will have any adverse impact to the area’s natural, cultural, scenic, and aesthetic values, and preserve the area as a primitive wilderness, as Congress intended.
Immediately enlarge the size of the areas closed to ORVs in order to protect endangered and threatened species until the enactment of the formal management plan.

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