On June 11, North Carolina U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones introduced legislation into the Senate and the House of Representatives that would set aside an amendment to current resource management (consent decree) and require that the Park Service operate the seashore under its duly authorized resource management plan (interim plan). Upon reading the letter provided below, it should be obvious that the importance of these bills extends well beyond the current issue regarding Cape Hatteras. This is no longer simply the classic debate over protection of resources versus human use and development. This is a debate regarding who is in charge of managing resources, the government in compliance with congressional acts or environmental groups with one goal, maximizing resource protection without regard to the costs of their proposals. The courts have been supporting the latter.

At this point, the bills have been referred to the appropriate committees. This is where most bills die. If we want these bills to get to the floor, we need to give our representatives a reason to co-sponsor the bills. If you don’t do something now, this type of action on the part of the courts and environmental groups will likely impact you in the very near future.

Take a stand. Print these instructions and take the 30 minutes needed to send the emails. Better yet, if you want to have the biggest impact, fax the letters and follow up via phone. Please, at least write your Senators and House Representative—steps 1 through 11.

Don’t forget PASS THIS ONTO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK. THIS IS NOT JUST A CAPE HATTERAS ISSUE.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Go to http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
2. Type your zip code, you will get a list with 2 senators and 1 house representative
3. Click on the first senator in the list.
4. Fill out the form (use National Parks, Natural Resources, or Judiciary for the topic) and Senate Bill 3133 for the subject.
5. Copy the letter presented below to the message area.
6. Edit the letter filling in your information and deleting HR 6233.
7. Hit the back button until you get back to the list of representatives.
8. Click on the second senator and repeat steps 4 through 7.
9. Click on the house representative (3rd person in the list).
10. Fill out the form (use National Parks, Natural Resources, or Judiciary for the topic) and HR 6233 for the subject.
11. Copy and edit the letter filling in your information and deleting Senate Bill 3133.
12. Go to http://www.rahall.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=521&Itemid=162 .
13. Repeat steps 10 & 11, except there is no topic field.
14. Add the following: Please forward my request to the entire committee.
15. Go to http://judiciary.house.gov/contact.aspx .
16. Repeat steps 10 & 11, except there is no topic or subject field—type your own subject line.
17. Goto http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home .
18. Repeat steps 4 through 6, except there is no topic field.
LETTER

My name is (Your Name). I am a voting member of (Your state or district). I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor HR 6233/Senate Bill 3133. As described below, my request is based upon the opinion that environmental groups, with the assistance of the courts, are usurping governmental authority for resource management on federal lands. More often than not the management techniques that result ignore the cost benefit analysis required by NEPA and other Congressional Acts.

On April 30, the United States district court for the eastern district of North Carolina, northern division accepted a consent decree that resulted in the voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Defenders of Wildlife and Audubon against CHNSRA. The consent decree (signed under the threat that all public access would be denied) amended a duly authorized resource management plan (Interim Plan). The amendment eliminated ALL discretion on the part of NPS and has severely limited public access to park. As a result, the decree is not only having a severe economic impact on Dare County and NC, but also, has the effect of delegating managerial functions of NPS to the court and private environmental groups. This is an unconstitutional delegation of federal authority.

The impact of the decision to accept the consent degree is not limited to CHNSRA or NC. In fact, each time the courts overturn management decisions made by governmental units, the courts embolden environmental groups. For example, the following comment from the Center for Biological Diversity clearly shows the Center's total disregard for the government’s role in management of federal lands and their confidence in being able 1) to dictate to NPS and USFWS, and 2) to ignore Congressional Acts regarding appropriate rulemaking procedures.

"To remind the Service of the true definition of ‘essential habitat,’ in 2007 the Center filed a notice of intent to sue the agency over that decision (Piping Plover Habitat) and 54 others that have driven imperiled species across the country closer to extinction." (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/piping_plover/index.html)

Co-sponsoring the above-noted bill will send a clear message that management of federal lands is the sole discretion of the federal agency in charge and must be done in accordance with Congressional Acts. Anything less, is equivalent to abdicating governmental responsibility for federal land management, to ignoring Congressional Acts, and to encouraging massive expenditures of government funds on legal fees.

Please take a stand and co-sponsor this bill.