Race Pt Beach - Piping Plover/ORV Access Update

[fishonnelsons]

FYI - I just sent this out to my "Plover" distribution list. The Seashore has published it's "Enviromental Assessment" of their proposals to open up some more of the Race Pt area beaches should a "near total closure" occur due to Plover nesting, and they have agreed to go ahead with it.

However, this opens up another public input period. It's very important that as many e-mails get sent in supporting this, even though we may feel and even say that it's not nearly good enough. Reason being is that if we don't say anything, and the Seashore gets a few hundred e-mails, letters etc opposing this action from other groups, then the Seashore will be within it's rights to say "we asked the public, the only input we got was against our proposal, and therefore we will not proceed with it".

This just came out today, on the attached link, http://parkplanning.nps.gov , down the bottom of the page, "Documents Ready for Comment"



It’s 49 pages long, but the bottom line is they are still looking to open up a “few” additional area’s if Piping Plover closures result in “less than ½ mile of beach being open to ORV users”.



This starts the public comment period, and you can actually e-mail your comment to them right on that attached link. There will also be another public meeting, Sat., March 3rd, at the Seashore for comment. Remember – all feedback helps. If we/you don’t say anything, and hundreds of people who are against the ORV’s send e-mails in, the Seashore can take that to mean that the public doesn’t want to make any compromises and can essentially back away from the proposal.



My personal/business comment is that although it is a good thing the Seashore is trying to implement some actions should there be "near-total" closures, and thank you for that, I believe a whole lot more could be done without endangering the birds. Specifically, why wait until 7.5 of the 8 miles of beaches are closed before opening up some of the new areas - as soon as any of the 8 miles are opened up they should open up the new area's - maintain as much of the status quo as possible.



Please log onto that website and forward your comments, at the minimum it demonstrates that a lot of people are very much interested in this issue.