A congressman from North Carolina says there's no need for more ORV regulations at Cape Lookout National Seashore/Kurt Repanshek
A draft plan aimed at managing off-road vehicles at Cape Lookout National Seashore has been severely criticized by a congressman, who said there's no justification to either charge an $80 permit fee or restrict where ORVs can go on the national seashore.
Seashore officials released their draft ORV management plan earlier this year. Under the preferred alternative, ORVs would be able to travel most of Cape Lookout; the plan also would create three seasonal "pedestrian only" areas on the seashore. The proposed Cape Lookout National Seashore Off-Road Vehicle Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement aims to put specific numbers to ORV traffic, specify where they can travel, formally set speed limits, and set seasons for when they can travel on the seashore.
But Rep. Walter B. Jones, in a letter sent to the seashore a month after the comment period closed, said the "restrictions" contained in the preferred alternative would "impose significant economic hardship on the local economy and are totally unnecessary to protect species of concern."
Under the proposed alternative, efforts to provide pedestrian only access during the summer months would cause the mileage open to ORVs to seesaw just a bit: 44 of the seashore's 56 miles would be open to ORVs from March 16 "through the Thursday preceding Memorial Day and from the day after Labor Day through December 15." Forty-one of those miles "would be available for ORV use from the Friday preceding Memorial Day through Labor Day. Routes within the Cape Lookout Village Historic District would be open to through vehicle traffic."
In his two-page letter, the Republican congressman said the Park Service seems to be searching for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Visitation to Cape Lookout has been on the decline, Rep. Jones pointed out, and additional regulations will own continue that downward spiral.
"The proposed permits, fees, and other access restrictions in Alternative C all but invite visitors to vacation elsewhere," he wrote. "American's hard-earned tax dollars already pay for the operation of the seashore; they shouldn't be charged an additional fee to access it."
Back in 2013 Rep. Jones introduced legislation that would force Cape Hatteras National Seashore to discard its court-approved ORV management plan and return to an interim plan adopted in 2007. The measure stalled in the House.
Comments
Agreed - and noone is forcing you to ride a bike or an ORV. Nor are they preventing you from walking. If anyone is screaming for the "MY WAY ONLY -- ALL OR NOTHING" its the Wilderness absolutists.
This is a reasonable compromise, to all but the lazy. This congressman should be ashamed for simply being a lazy american and promoting an even lazier america. Hoorray for the continual decline into a full blown idiocracy. All praise the lazy!
Sorry Gary - people have the right to be "lazy" if they want to. But then ORVs at Cape Lookout have nothing to do with "lazy".
Gary, I don't have a business anywhere near either these parks and never taken a government handout or subsidy, like I'm sure you have. I have family roots to these islands and care deeply about my friends that live there. They are suffering at the hands of moronic people like yourself that have no understanding of the area. I have walked miles to many parts of these islands and glady share my walks with responsible ORV drivers. Your bigoted attacks glarinly show the left wing ignorant intolerance to anything but thier view.
Or the folks who want ALL the beach open to ORVs, or those who want ALL the forest and park trails open to bikes, or those who want ALL the roads to be paved, or those who want ALL the services provided free, or . . . . or . . . . (and the list goes on ad infinitum)
Note that in my post asking for reasonableness on all sides, I was careful to point to the extremes on both ends when I asked for nothing more than an adult, sensible consideration of seeking compromise.
But to those infected with the Great American Entitlement Mentality, that is a completely foreign concept.
Excuse me, but I need to head for the gym to join a large number of others who have found themselves overweight and/or afflicted with something called age who are trying to do something about it. We may be old and fat, (although I prefer the word chubby) but at least we're not lazy.
Oh - you mean like all those folks that claim man has no impact on earth? You couldn't name one of them and I am guessing you can't name anyone that meets the description above either.
like I'm sure you have
moronic people
Is it fair to suggest that Your bigoted attacks glarinly show the right wing ignorant intolerance to anything but thier view.
Thanks for a good laugh this morning.
Now how about trying to seek workable solutions that lie somewhere between the ignorant left wing and the equally ignorant right wing?
Probably hopeless, but I do think we should try . . .
Well, let's see, there's that one who calls himself ec or something like that . . . .
But he'll deny it.
See ya at the gym.