Many of you might not know that for the last few years the residents of Hatteras Island and all of us on the Outer Banks have been fighting to keep the beaches on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore open to the public. For over 100 years residents and tourists alike have enjoyed open access to all of the beaches along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore from just north of Oregon Inlet the tip of Ocracoke. Those beaches provide some of the best surfing and surf fishing found anywhere along the east coast. Now the highly connected and deep pocketed Audubon Society and a group called the Defenders of Wildlife have decided that they want the beaches closed forever. A few years ago they were able to exploit a loophole in the Park Service Off Road Vehicle Management Plan and convinced a Judge that was sympathetic to their cause to close access to the Seashore beaches for part of the year. All over a bird called the Piping Plover, and guess what is not even an endangered species.
Below is a short documentary made by a guy from New York that takes a look at the extreme measures the so called Defenders of Wildlife have gone to get and keep the beaches closed plus the impact it's had on the residents of Hatteras Island. It's shocking to see what a well connected and funded group of enviromentalist can do to a hard working, law abiding community. Think about it, if this can happen here it can happen in your backyard as well.
To learn more about the fight to save open access to the Seashore beaches go to www.preservebeachaccess.org.
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