On May 4th, an incident management team (Bill Wright, IC) arrived at the park to assist with the planning and implementation of a consent decree issued by the federal court at the end of April. The decree constitutes a settlement agreement to a lawsuit filed against the park by the National Audubon Society and the Defenders of Wildlife. The purpose of the decree is to regulate beach driving and protect shorebirds and turtles along the park’s 64-mile shoreline. Implementation of the decree since May 1st has resulted in effectively closing the beaches at Oregon Inlet (Bodie Island), Cape Point, and South Point on Ocracoke Island to all access. The IMT is determining additional staffing and housing needs and associated financial costs for carrying out the decree. A special events team was assigned to the park on May 1st to provide enhanced law enforcement and patrol coverage of recently closed areas and expanded buffer zones established to protect piping plovers, least terns, American oystercatchers and other shorebirds. The consent decree also instituted a ban on night beach driving between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. from May 1st through Nov 15th, with a new night driving permit to be implemented beginning September 16th. The first documented violation of a resource closure took place on Saturday, May 10th, when a park ranger discovered and documented twelve posts with “Area Closed” signs on them broken off at the sand line and several Carsonite closure markers pulled out at the shoreline. Under the terms of the decree, the violation resulted in a mandatory expansion of the closure area by 50 meters. The park is continuing to seek out new ways to address the increased workload that has been generated by the consent decree. Additional monitors, laborers, and law enforcement staff will be necessary through the peak of the season in order to comply with the language of the decree.
