Thursday, June 19, 2008
OBPA reply to the Va. Pilot editorial
Dear Editor;
It is unbelievable that a newspaper such as the Virginian Pilot, should advocate that the citizens of the United States of America abdicate their 1st Amendment right to petition their elected officials for a redress of a wrong but instead place their faith in a single federal Judge who presided over an issue framed by a well funded, high profiled, single issue, special interest group.
And furthermore, the Va. Pilot declares in the same column, contradictory positions which state the National Park Service should manage the resources according to sound science and then states the resources be managed by a set of draconian rules by the new “Resource Managers,†the Special Interest Groups and a compliant U.S. Solicitor sitting in a smoked filled room, where the scientific basis for those rules is never viewed by the public challenged or tested in open court.
It is erroneous to claim the Interim Bird Strategy Plan at Cape Hatteras is somehow weaker than the provisions of the consent decree. The Interim Strategy Plan was developed from a public process comprised of input from citizens, environmentalists, USFWS, NPS and USGS, that offered the best available science for the protection of the wildlife. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a FONSI report that showed a “finding of no significant impact†to the wildlife. This was the plan to guide the public through the Negotiated Rule Making Process until NPS could write the final rule.
The consequences of the consent decree are economically destructive and have a negative effect on the tourist-based economies of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. It has turned the public against the protection of wildlife, has frustrated the visiting public who are not getting the visitor experience they come to expect and are professing not to return next year. Rental cancellations are being felt by the rental property industry but I guess that is OK with the editor of this paper.
It makes me wonder if those editors ever actually think about what they are writing, or if they just advocate what they receive in a Press Release as their own thought.
John B. Couch, President
Outer Banks Preservation Association
P.0. Box 751
Buxton N.C. 2792o
252-995-4955
It is unbelievable that a newspaper such as the Virginian Pilot, should advocate that the citizens of the United States of America abdicate their 1st Amendment right to petition their elected officials for a redress of a wrong but instead place their faith in a single federal Judge who presided over an issue framed by a well funded, high profiled, single issue, special interest group.
And furthermore, the Va. Pilot declares in the same column, contradictory positions which state the National Park Service should manage the resources according to sound science and then states the resources be managed by a set of draconian rules by the new “Resource Managers,†the Special Interest Groups and a compliant U.S. Solicitor sitting in a smoked filled room, where the scientific basis for those rules is never viewed by the public challenged or tested in open court.
It is erroneous to claim the Interim Bird Strategy Plan at Cape Hatteras is somehow weaker than the provisions of the consent decree. The Interim Strategy Plan was developed from a public process comprised of input from citizens, environmentalists, USFWS, NPS and USGS, that offered the best available science for the protection of the wildlife. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a FONSI report that showed a “finding of no significant impact†to the wildlife. This was the plan to guide the public through the Negotiated Rule Making Process until NPS could write the final rule.
The consequences of the consent decree are economically destructive and have a negative effect on the tourist-based economies of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. It has turned the public against the protection of wildlife, has frustrated the visiting public who are not getting the visitor experience they come to expect and are professing not to return next year. Rental cancellations are being felt by the rental property industry but I guess that is OK with the editor of this paper.
It makes me wonder if those editors ever actually think about what they are writing, or if they just advocate what they receive in a Press Release as their own thought.
John B. Couch, President
Outer Banks Preservation Association
P.0. Box 751
Buxton N.C. 2792o
252-995-4955
