Driving is flash point at national seashore

The television that angler Frank Folb usually keeps tuned to the weather in his Avon tackle shop had a more mundane show playing Wednesday afternoon: a government panel of U.S. senators talking about bird survival, beach driving and the future of life as Folb knows it on Hatteras Island.

In Washington, Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr of North Carolina worked to overturn a federal court agreement that, since May, has kept miles of beaches closed to anglers and sunbathers along Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Under the agreement, night driving also will be banned through much of the fall.

Dole, a Salisbury Republican, introduced legislation to overturn the federal agreement. She testified Wednesday at a Senate hearing on her bill, saying the court agreement threatened the local economy.

Back in Avon, Folb and other Hatteras residents hoped the Senate would change the new prohibitions.

"We're all for protecting the birds," Folb said. "What we've lived under this summer has been unbearable for our visitors and families."

The beach closures are there to protect a series of endangered and threatened species -- nests of piping plovers, American oystercatchers and sea turtles. Early statistics indicate the closures are having an impact. Already, the number of nesting pairs of piping plovers has risen from six last summer to 11 this year.

"This is working exactly like scientists predicted it would," said Derb Carter, attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, who testified Wednesday.

The dispute goes to the heart of culture on the Outer Banks and Cape Hatteras National Seashore, pitting the hopes of people who drive on the national shorelines against the work of residents trying to protect nature and the threatened wildlife.

"Part of the balance we have to look at is, what's the economic impact?" Burr said. "Could this be economically devastating?"

The seashore covers 67 miles of flat, sandy beaches on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, jutting into the Atlantic Ocean and offering some of the best fishing on the coast.

Much of the beach is unreachable from the road. So anglers pile rods, beach chairs, coolers and tackle into trucks to drive up the sand and cast into the surf. Many come overnight to catch nocturnal fish such as red drum.

Anglers and tourism officials say the restrictions already have hurt the local economy. Folb said his business is down 20 percent from this time a year ago, and he said it can't all be attributed to increased gas prices. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore has seen its visitors fall by 15 percent, acknowledged Daniel N. Wenk, deputy director of the National Park Service.

Still, Wenk said, the agency opposes Dole's legislation to overturn the federal court agreement.

Environmental groups and supporters of off-road driving signed off on the federal agreement, which put boundaries around bird nests, sometimes cutting off entire swaths of beach for weeks to protect nesting pairs and their chicks. The beach also will be closed at night through mid-November to protect nesting sea turtles. The park service also is called on to develop a permanent management plan by 2011.

Warren Judge, chairman of the Dare County commissioners, supports Dole's bill. In his testimony Wednesday, he spun a tale of Hatteras history, weaving shipwreck-survival descendants, surfers, anglers and families into a local culture "eking out a living" based on tourism.

He criticized the Audubon Society and Defenders of Wildlife. "These special-interest groups have no practical sense," Judge said.

Judge told senators Wednesday that the county supported the agreement only because officials worried the beaches would be totally closed until 2011.

"Yes, we signed it. We signed it under duress," Judge said. "We felt it was the lesser of two evils."

But Carter, of the Southern Environmental Law Center, said it was Dare County that declined to negotiate this spring.

And he defended the agreement as the best way to achieve the National Park Service's larger goals of preserving nature.

"Congress has wisely chosen to preserve national seashores ... to leave for future generations to enjoy," Carter testified.