War Rages on Cape Hatteras The Interior Department has pledged
to put wildlife before recreation in our national parks, but on
a North Carolina national seashore, it’s letting off-road
vehicles run amok, imperiling birds and people. What’s wrong
with this picture: off-road vehicles (ORVs) monopolizing barrier
beaches on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, aborting nesting
attempts by colonial waterbirds, oystercatchers, threatened
piping plovers, and threatened and endangered sea turtles;
crushing eggs and young of all these species; and imperiling
and/or intimidating the roughly 90 percent of visitors who
travel by foot. Answer: These long, thin islands that help
insulate the northern half of the state from storms and provide
critical habitat to vanishing wildlife are part of our National
Park System. Seventy miles of them were designated as the Cape
Hatteras National Seashore in 1953. Such abuse results largely
from ongoing priorities of the Bush administration that give lie
to its “new park policy,” announced Au