Government Affairs
Current
Issue
Sportfishing
Access in Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreation Area (CHNSRA)
The
Issue
On June 11, Senators Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) and Richard Burr (R-NC)
and Representative Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R-NC), introduced legislation (S.
3113 and H.R.
6233) that would reinstate the Interim Strategy governing off-road vehicle
(ORV) and pedestrian use in Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreation Area
(CHNSRA) in North Carolina. The reinstatement of the Interim Strategy
would override the requirements established by a recent consent decree that
currently prevents ORV and citizen access to a significant portion of the
seashore in the name of shorebird protection, specifically the piping plover. S.
3113 and H.R. 6233 would restore reasonable ORV and pedestrian access to
CHNSRA while continuing appropriate resource protection.
How
You Can Help
Please send
a letter to
your members of Congress requesting their support
of S. 3113 and H.R. 6233 to restore reasonable off-road vehicle and pedestrian
access to Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreation Area while continuing
appropriate resource protection. In
addition, please call the offices of your state representatives requesting
their support of S. 3133 if they are a Senator or H.R. 6233 if they are a
House Representative. *Note – This is a call to action
for ALL anglers, not just those from North Carolina. Please show your
support for the Hatteras community.
Our
Goal
Protect the ability of CHNSRA residents and visitors to access the
beaches for surf fishing while providing protection to the beach environment
and piping plover. ASA also seeks to assure that the process for future beach
closures relies on biological and economic information in a balanced fashion.
Background
The CHNSRA is currently facing two land-based issues that have the
potential to affect access to saltwater fishing in the Seashore.
- The
development of a management plan for the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs)
on the beach
- The
potential designation of critical habitat under the Endangered Species
Act for the piping plover
Off-Road
Vehicle Management Plan
Executive
Order 11644 of 1972 requires federal agencies permitting ORV use on agency
lands to establish regulations for such use. Due to this Order, the NPS
is developing an ORV Management Plan for CHNS. The NPS maintains that
ORVs must be regulated in a manner that appropriately addresses resource
protection—including protected, threatened and endangered species—and
potential conflicts among the various CHNSRA.
Since
ORVs are necessary to access many sportfishing areas of the National Seashore,
the concern is that the ORV Plan may give little consideration to economic
impacts to any segment of the sportfishing industry and the communities
that depend on sportfishing. The implementation of the ORV Plan poses serious
questions about the future of recreational fishing in CHNSRA and presents
a serious challenge to sportfishing because:
- The
ORV Plan could ultimately prevent reasonable access to many of the CHNSRA’s
best marine sportfishing areas.
- The
ORV Plan and the various designations made under it is a complex and
ever-changing process making it difficult for anglers and the public,
specifically tourists, to understand.
- Statewide,
anglers are not coordinated to oppose large unwarranted ORV restrictions.
- Environmental
groups supporting access closures under the ORV Plan are well-organized.
The
NPS has assigned a high priority to the completion of the ORV Plan and
subsequent regulations. In an attempt to complete the ORV Plan in a collaborative
fashion, the NPS formed the CHNSRA
Negotiated Rulemaking (RegNeg) Committee to assist in its development
of the Plan. The Reg-Neg, of which ASA is a memner, consists of various
stakeholders in the CHNSRA, including environmental groups, anglers, business-owners,
and tourism organizations, among others, and will be working to reach consensus
on issues related to the ORV Plan. On June 13, 2007, the NPS implemented
an Interim Protected Species Management Strategy (Interim Strategy), which
underwent the NEPA review process and public comment, to provide adequate
protection for resident shorebirds until Negotiated Rulemaking is complete
in December 2010.
Meanwhile,
on February 20, 2008, the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon
Society (Plaintiffs) filed an injunction asking that all ORV access, except
for essential vehicles, be stopped on the CHNSRA. The Plaintiffs argued
that the NPS’s Interim Strategy did not provide adequate protection
for area shorebirds. The federal government declined to defend the Interim
Plan and entered into settlement negotiations with the Plaintiffs.
In late April 2008, Federal District Judge Terrence Boyle approved
a consent decree outlining the details of the settlement agreement, which
will remain in effect until the RegNeg Committee has completed its work and
the NPS issues a final long term ORV Management Plan. The details of the
settlement agreement are extensive and put in place protections for shorebirds
that exceed the protections outlined in the Interim Strategy. These protections
have resulted in extensive restrictions on ORV access to key surf fishing
spots in CHNSRA and an undue economic burden on the local economy. Both
Plaintiffs have a seat on the RegNeg Committee, a situation viewed by many
as a conflict of interest. This concern was brought to the attention of Department
of Interior (DOI) staff by other RegNeg Committee members and various CHNSRA
stakeholders. Although ASA and others requested the removal of the
Plaintiffs from the RegNeg Committee on the basis that they did not follow
ground rules to negotiate “in good faith,” this request was
denied by the DOI in June 2008.
On
June 11, Senators Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) and Representative
Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R-NC), introduced legislation (S.
3113 and H.R.
6233) that would set aside the mandates established by the consent
decree and reinstate the Interim Strategy until Negotiated Rulemaking is
completed. The reinstatement of the Interim Strategy would restore reasonable
ORV and pedestrian access to CHNSRA while providing appropriate
shorebird and resource protection.
For
more information on the CHNSRA, please visit the National Park Service
at www.nps.gov/caha.
Re-Designation
of ESA Critical Habitat for Piping Plover Campaign
The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is proposing to re-designate portions
of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreation Area (CHNSRA) as critical
habitat for wintering piping plover. This proposal revisits a previous
designation that was rejected by a Federal District Court in 2004. The
re-designation is aimed to protect nesting piping plovers from pedestrians
on the beach, pets, predation, off-road vehicle (ORV) use, and other
recreational uses. The CHNSRA is the northernmost point of the wintering
range for piping plovers, and ASA believes that the USFWS has not made
its case for why this marginal area is essential to the conservation
of the species.
The
revised proposal would add 216 acres of critical habitat to two of the
four units previously proposed in the rule published on June 12, 2006.
The FWS also released a revised draft economic analysis and environmental
assessment. The
draft economic analysis identifies and analyzes the effect of potential
management actions implemented by the National Park Service on ORV use
and potential administrative costs of Endangered Species Act consultations
undertaken by the Park Service. It also evaluates the economic consequences
of designating critical habitat for the wintering population of the piping
plover in North Carolina. However, the FWS’s economic analysis is
based on a fundamentally flawed visitor use survey that does not estimate
ORV use scientifically and was subsequently dismissed in peer review as
inadequate. The scope of the environmental assessment includes an
evaluation of the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of the designation
of the four proposed critical habitat units, as well as the option to only
designate some of the units or some portion of the units identified in
the proposed rule.
Critical
habitat is defined as habitat that requires special management considerations.
However, until the settlement agreement was put in place, the CHNSRA was
managed in part by the Interim Strategy, which was submitted to the FWS
for review and comment. The management protections provided by the Interim
Strategy were put in place specifically to provide the piping plover with
the necessary habitat protection, without the need for a critical habitat
designation and its associated burdens, until the ORV Management Plan (outlined
above) is developed. When complete, the ORV Management Plan will also include
protections for nesting piping plovers.
If all or portions of the CHNSRA are eventually designated as critical
habitat for piping plover, public access to the beaches of the national seashore
will be severely limited on a permanent basis until such designation is lifted.
Limited access means the limited ability to use ORV’s to access a large
number of surf fishing sites in the CHNSRA.
For
more information, please visit the FWS’s proposed Amended
Designation of Critical Habitat for the Wintering Population of the Piping
Plover.
The Importance of Sportfishing to North Carolina
At $58.5 million, North Carolina is sixth in state tax revenue earnings
from saltwater sportfishing. At almost $913 million, North Carolina’s
annual economic output from sportfishing is significant:
- Generates
$1.98 billion annual economic output
- Generates
$1.2 billion in NC retails sales
- Supports
20,712 North Carolina jobs
- Generates
$122.4 million in NC income taxes
- Pays
$581.8 million in NC salaries and wages
- North
Carolina has over 1,263,000 saltwater anglers
