Our friends down south at Cape Hatteras need our help too. Here is the online comment form link to send a comment by midnight tonight Friday March 16-
http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentF...cumentId=17542
It is important to all of you who want access to beach, whether it is the Cape Cod National Seashore or some other stretch of beach, it is time to stand up and be counted - if you think that 'someone else' will do it for you, you are fooling yourself. You can bet that the people who don't want us on the beach, because they don't want to see our trucks, because they don't want us being 'cruel' to fish, or whatever, you can bet that their comments have been sent. We need to band together and make our voices heard, or they are going to get you off of your beach. Get off your butt and send something.
Here is what I sent regarding Cape Hatteras:
My name is Michael Tribuna, and I am writing to you concerning the issue of ORV access to the Cape Hatteras National Recreational Seashore. It is important that endangered species be protected and reasonable efforts should be made to ensure the survival of any endangered species; however, it is also important that the taxpayers (and future generation of taxpayers) should also continue to have access to the national treasure that is our nation’s beaches and be able to experience them firsthand, rather than seeing them on an old documentary or reading about them in a book. I am a fisherman, and it has been my experience that fishermen are some of the most conscientious people who use the beach. For instance, I myself have many times picked up sea borne refuse, and on a National Seashore further north I have reported the presence of, and collected, cold stunned endangered Kemp's Ridley turtles, among other turtles, for rescue, and on many instances I have called the Ranger Station to report dangerous conditions and situations such as beached boats. As primary users, fishermen such as myself are the eyes and ears of the Seashore. In addition, fishermen contribute a great deal to the local economies and the history, legends and lore of the beach and the surrounding communities. For reasons such as these, it is important that any proposed management plan includes provisions that make continued ORV access a high priority.
The national seashore that I frequent the most, the Cape Cod National Seashore, is experiencing major problems with attempts at resource management. Efforts to protect bird species have been successful but extremely slow paced. This has led to the exclusion of ORV’s from the beach for large portions of the summer months; a situation, which is projected to continue into the foreseeable future and, it appears, far beyond. I appreciate the fact that the Cape Hatteras National Recreational Seashore is trying to address a difficult situation, but a solution such as restricting or prohibiting access of ORV’s would be draconian in nature. I hope that, if it comes to it, the Cape Hatteras National Recreational Seashore sees to it that alternate methods of protecting the endangered species of the Seashore are devised and implemented, even on a trial or experimental basis, because it is obvious that the methods used by the Cape Cod National Seashore place far to high a burden on the ORV community. Simply closing beach to ORV’s and not reducing the predation that cause the vast, vast majority of mortality of endangered species, or not providing alternate means of ORV access to unaffected beach, is simply not an acceptable solution.
I hope to one day be able to visit the Cape Hatteras National Recreational Seashore – it has been something I have been planning to do for a few years now. Please see to it that when I am able to do so, I will be able to have ORV access to the Seashore, and be able to contribute to the local economy and the Parks Service budget by visiting.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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