The Consensus Building Insititute will be publishing their recommendations for the negotiated rulemaking committee on 12/20/05. If you would like to view the proposal prior to 12/20 click on the link below.
Outer Banks Preservation Association ORV Rulemaking Update
The Consensus Building Insititute will be accepting public comment on their recommendations for the negotiated rulemaking committee starting on 12/20/05 and ending 1/30/06. At the end of this period, the CBI will submitt its recommendations to the DOI. The composition of the committee is important to the outcome of the negotiated rulemaking process. To make comments, click on the link below.
Consensus Building Institute Cape Hatteras National Seashore Negotiated Rulemaking
Editor’s Notes
For those of you who have not been following recent events, this writer is supplying some useful information regarding some of the organizations that have been nominated.
The alternate for the USFWS seat and the potential nominee for the NCWRC seat published a post Isabel Assessment Report on behalf of the USFWS and the NCWRC. After the assessment report was published the USFWS and the NCWRC issued a letter stating that the report did not represent the agencies assessment and was NOT authorized. That is, the nominees for these seats have demonstrated that they are NOT capable of represented the agencies they have been nominated to represent–a requirement for nomination.
Two of the other users’ seats (nominee Cape Hatteras Recreational Alliance and alternate Hatteras and Frisco Homeowners’ Coalition) are organizations that were recently formed to represent primarily non-motorized recreational users. The rationale for the inclusion of these groups is that "it was determined that there was no other local or regional group focused solely on this particular set of interests and stakeholders". While this logic can be questioned, my real concern here is the legtimacy of these organizations. Quite simply, I live in Frisco and I do no know anyone who has ever heard of, let alone been given a opportunity to join either of these organizations. With respect to the Hatteras and Frisco Homeowners’ Coalition, the nominee for that organization stated that they have 200 members. The population of Hatteras and Frisco was 1,471 as of the 2000 census–that is, the membership of the Hatteras and Frisco Homeowners’ Coalition represents about 13% of the total population of Hatteras and Frisco, hardly representative of the villages. With respect to the Cape Hatteras Recreational Alliance, I have no idea how many members they claim to represent but I would bet the number is small.
One of the organizations given a seat at the table, Defenders of Wildlife, has filed a letter of intent to sue the NPS for failure to protect various species found in the park. The nominee for this position, the DOW’s attorney, stated in an interview that the DOW was encouraged by the NPS closures this spring and summer but that the protective measures still fell short of what the DOW was looking for. The DOW’s attorney further stated, that the DOW’s decision to follow through on the lawsuit would depend on the NPS’ actions this breeding season. Quite simply, this organization and their nominee have demonstrated that they have NO desire to reach any kind of compromise.
A second organization being considered for a seat at the table, the National Park Conservation Association, has joined Bluewater in a lawsuit filed against the NPS. The lawsuit asks for a complete ban of all ORV use. The National Park Conservation Association has stated that they would exempt Cape Hatteras from the lawsuit ONLY as long as they are a participant in the rulemaking process. That is, if they are not appointed to the committee or if they choose to leave the table Cape Hatteras will be returned to the list of parks included in the lawsuit. The concern here is the potential for this group to exercise undue influence over the proceedings because of the threat of an outright ban on all ORV use in the event that they are not happy with the direction the negotiations take.