RALLY REVS UP OUTER BANKS BEACH DRIVING DEBATE
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From The Virginian-Pilot
By Catherine Kozak
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On both sides of the beach there was the Atlantic Ocean, frothing and frenzied by a lurking
storm. Winds blew steady near 30 mph, with intermittent hard shoves of 50 mph. Leaden skies
dumped rain in furious spells that ceased as suddenly as they started.
Cape Point on Saturday morning was an unlikely gathering place for hundreds of people,
arriving in a stream of about 100 off-road vehicles. And they didn't come to fish.
The quickly organized rally on the sandy elbow of the Outer Banks, renowned for its wild
openness and premier fishing, was intended as a show of force in the face of efforts to close
popular beaches in Cape Hatteras National Seashore to recreational traffic.
"It's amazing what people will do to save their beach," said organizer Rob Alderman, sporting a
yellow slicker and pants tucked into boots, his rain-dampened face dusted with sand.
Beach drivers accept seasonal closures of beaches, he said, but they are now deeply worried
that they may not be able to drive on those beaches for years - or ever again. That would be a
major blow to the tourism-based economy, to recreational fishing and to the passionately
defended Outer Banks tradition.
"Other than the lighthouses and the ferries, what else do they have down here? What else do
they have other than fishing?" asked Jennifer Perry, who drove six hours from Willard, N.C.
"They'd lose a lot of income if they'd block it off."
Two environmental groups, the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society, last
month filed a request for a preliminary injunction against beach driving in the most sensitive
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Off-road vehicle drivers gather Saturday at Cape
Point in Buxton to protest an effort to ban driving
on some beaches
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About 100 off-road vehicles converged for the
event. Drivers are actually good stewards of the
beaches, picking up trash and protecting wildlife
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bird-nesting areas on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.
The request is asking the judge to restrict ORV access to South Ocracoke, Hatteras Spit, North Ocracoke, Cape Point, South Beach
and Bodie Island Spit for up to three years.
A hearing is scheduled for April 3 in Raleigh.
"We're assembling as a plea to the judge and the public to not punish the ORV users for the mismanagement of the National Park
Service for the last 30 years," Alderman said.
Hurriedly taking advantage of a lull in the storm, nearly 200 people posed for photographs at the triangular tip of Cape Point. Some
tightly held on to American flags that stood starched in the powerful southwest wind.
Alderman, a Buxton resident who runs the Web site "Hatteras Island Fishing Militia," said the assemblage was intended to send a
message that recreational access to the beach is critical to the economy and well-being of the Outer Banks - for beachcombers,
surfers, swimmers and bird-watchers as well as fishermen.
Originally, Alderman said that the plan was to line up the ORVs 900 feet across to spell out "PLEASE HELP US," for an aerial
photograph. But high winds made it too dangerous to fly.
The bad weather, however, did not stop people who came from Maryland, Virginia, all over North Carolina and even some Northeastern
states.
Al Adam drove more than seven hours from his home west of Philadelphia.
"I contribute to the Audubon Society; I'm an avid fisherman," he said. "I own a home in Salvo. So, obviously, I have a personal interest
as well as a financial interest.
"I travel the East Coast from Maine to Key West, and this is a jewel here. There's nothing that the four-wheel-drive vehicles can do to
this beach compared with what nature can do."
Kevin McCabe, a Buxton resident, said beach drivers regularly pick up trash on beaches and go out of their way to protect birds and
turtles without anybody telling them.
"These people out here - they're the real environmentalists," he said.
From the days of his childhood in Richmond, his family has driven regularly on Outer Banks beaches, Mike Stokes of Kill Devil Hills
said. As an adult, he said, he drives "probably 100 times a year" on the beach to fish or to enjoy playtime with his family.
Stokes made a point of using the same rod his grandfather had used at The Point to fly an American flag from the back of his pickup.
"This is the surf fishing mecca of the world," he said. "And that's not overstating it at all. We're not anti-bird. We're pro-fishing. It's our
sanity."
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