UFWDA Alert on Cape Hatteras NSR
July 7th, 2008 RSS Print Email

BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT!


Attention Recreationists!

We just received an email from Carla Boucher, over at United Four Wheel Drive Associations (UFWDA), who asked us to pass this along to all our members and supporters.

I have pasted a copy of their Action Alert below. Please take a couple of minutes to read over the information and pass this along to as many people and places as possible.

Thanks in advance for your involvement,
Ric Foster
Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 107
________________________________________________________________________

UNITED FOUR WHEEL DRIVE ASSOCIATIONS
www.ufwda.org
info@ufwda.org
1-800-448-3932

ACTION ALERT
July 3, 2008

Action Alert
Contact your US Senator or Representative NOW and ask them to co-sponsor and vote in support of HR 6233 and s 3113.

Background
On June 11, 2008, members of the North Carolina US congressional delegation introduced HR 6233 & s 3113 to return management of Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area back to the National Park Service by setting aside the recently enacted consent decree that has virtually eliminated pedestrian and off-highway vehicle access at Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area. The bill will reinstate the Interim Management Plan for Species Management adopted through the NEPA process and public involvement by the National Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service and set aside the consent decree. The consent decree was a result of law suit settlement with Defenders of Wildlife and The National Audubon Society represented by Southern Environmental Law Center.

What to do
We need all of you, in every state across the country, to contact your US Senators and Representatives asking them to co-sponsor and support HR 6233 and s. 3113.

How to be the most effective
1) Visit - visiting your elected officials is the most persuasive method of convincing them to support HR 6233 and s. 3113
2) Fax - faxed letters indicating who you are, where you live, why you care, and why they should care are more persuasive than other methods of sending a letter.
3) Call - a personal call is very effective and more effective than e-mailing
4) E-mail - e-mailing a letter is less effective than visiting, faxing or e-mailing a letter, but will work if that is the method that enables you to do your part.
5) Mail - using the U.S. Postal Service takes up to 30 days for delivery so it is the least effective choice in contacting your elected officials.

How to find your US Senator or Representative
To find your US Representative(s) click here
Or go here directly: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

To find your US Senators click here
Or go here directly: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Talking points
These talking points are derived in part from information at the Free Island Press, July 1, 2008, "The Case For Passing Legislation That Returns Management of the Seashore to the Park Service". www.freeislandpress.org. And from information on the University of North Carolina website, www.learnnc.org

Ask them specifically to co-sponsor the bills

Ask them specifically to support passage of the bills

Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area was established first and foremost as a national seashore recreational area under its enabling legislation

The 2007 nesting season, prior to implementation of either the Interim Management Plan or the consent decree, was the most successful piping plover breeding season in over 20 years

Under the consent decree, a single plover chick is given enough beach area to cover the decks of three U.S. Navy super aircraft carriers, the largest warships on earth

In most American communities, a convicted child molester can live closer to a public school than a fisherman and his family can get to a plover

The Atlantic piping plover population is fast approaching 2,000 nesting pairs -- a figure that makes them eligible for de-listing as threatened

American oystercatcher numbers were better last year under the interim strategy than they are this year under the consent decree, proving the consent decree doesn't work

The Outer Banks of North Carolina attract 5 million tourists each year to the area's many beaches

The park is largely inaccessible under the consent decree during the spring, summer, and fall, when the majority of Americans who visit the park take their vacations

In 2003, tourists spent $600 million dollars in the Outer Banks. The consent decree is causing a tremendous loss of this tourism revenue resulting in an extremely damaging economic impact state-wide in North Carolina

Before implementation of the consent decree Judge Boyle declared his intention to provide the environmental groups exactly what they sought without hearing any evidence from either point of view and precluded the intervening parties, Dare and Hyde counties and the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance, from entering any evidence at all in open court. This occurred within the first few minutes of a February, 2008 scheduling conference in Judge Boyle's court.

E-mails sent but My senator is MIA....

Emails sent for all it is worth! Got one canned reply already!

Same here Rocky...