Southern Environmental Law Center, Defenders Of Wildlife and the Audubon Society announced today that they had filed suit in the Federal Court of Eastern North Carolina over the NPS management of beach driving on Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area. They contend that the Negotiated Rulemaking process is too slow and immediate action to restrict ORV access is needed to protect endangered species and migratory birds. They want a new beach driving plan in place for the 2008 breeding season.

What will happen next is anybody’s guess. We will have to see how the NPS reacts to the suit.  The link below will take you to the SELC’s spin on the situation and you can read both the suit filed today and the Notice Of Intent to also sue under the Endangered Species Act.

http://www.southernenvironment.org/cases/hatteras/index.htm

The USFWS has once again asked for Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area to be designated as Critical Wintering Habitat for the Piping Plover.

The last time they tried this the Federal Judge ruled that they had not taken into account the Economic Impact such a designation would have on Hatteras Island.
Now they have published a Draft of an “Economic Analysis Of Critical Habitat Designation For The Wintering Piping Plover”.

You can read the document at the following link.

http://www.fws.gov/nc-es/piplch/Econ_Analysis.pdf

It’s kind of like going to the Dr. and he says: “Well, you will either have a long life in front of you or you are going to kick the bucket tomorrow”. The economic impact will either be zero or millions depending on what the NPS does in the future.  Not one person from the firm that did the analysis visited any individual or business on Hatteras Island.  You can comment at the following link.

mailto:ncplovercomments@fws.gov

The USFWS has issued an exemption for Pea Island but refuses to exempt our National Recreational Seashore, even though the NPS and USFWS have a plan in place to protect the Piping Plover. Please let the USFWS know that this draft is totally flawed and unusable. They are trying to push through a 60-day public comment period. We would ask our members to tell the USFWS that the economic future of Hatteras Island cannot be decided in just two months and we demand a six-month extension of the Public Comment Period.