Fifteen Octobers ago, Rich Stevenson and Lee Huffines invited me to South Core Banks for my first surf-fishing adventure. It also was my first trip to Cape Lookout National Seashore.
After a short, private-ferry crossing of Core Sound to South Core Banks, we drove to a primitive cabin to unload water and other supplies, then got in Rich’s old station wagon and headed toward the ocean. When we topped a sand road between two dunes, I noticed signs on posts and no tire tracks leading north. We turned south.
“Why not north?” I said.
“The Park Service puts some beach sections off-limits because of turtles,” Stevenson said.
I remember thinking that made sense. My friends didn’t object, perhaps because the Park Service had left open better fishing locations toward the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.
I later discovered the same rules applied at Cape Hatteras National Seashore — its park superintendent made beach-driving, resource-use rules. Good idea. Let the guy in charge and on the ground set parameters. The plan had worked for years, protecting anglers’ access, turtles and birds.
Of course, any public plan that works is like a bee tree next to a bear den — it’s going to draw attention. Enter the environmental groups.
Today, because of real and threatened lawsuits, Cape Hatteras beaches often are closed for months, and ORV permits require hefty fees. Meanwhile, many businesses in the seashore’s villages are teetering, some needing bank loans to meet payrolls after tourist visits tanked.
The Park Service appears ready to do the same favor to Cape Lookout National Seashore (CALO), which includes North and South Core Banks and Shackleford Banks. Free ORV use for surf fishing and camping has been allowed at North and South Core, but Shackleford is already off-limits to ORVs.
The NPS has five management options for CALO, but its preferred one would create new, seasonal pedestrian-only areas, existing pedestrian-only areas would be expanded, and an ORV permit system would be created with a limited number of permits. One option would end ORV use at CALO.
But the main difference in the Hatteras and Lookout seashores is access. North and South Core Banks are islands, while Cape Hatteras is reachable via NC 12. And if you must have air conditioning, heat or TV, forget it. The only cabin amenities are propane tanks.
The NPS’s first option A is to leave things as they are, which makes sense to us. Let Pat Kennedy, the superintendent at CALO, do his job and fit the rules to the situation, not the situation to the rules. Cape Lookout National Seashore sure ain’t broke, so why fix it?
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