“Today’s promise is a good sign, but this fight is not over,” Jones said following the hearing.  “I have serious concerns with any move that the Park Service or individual park units make in an effort to ban or restrict beach driving from the taxpayers who pay their salary. Any step in that direction, no matter the size, threatens what has become a traditional way of life in coastal North Carolina.”

 The House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands held an oversight hearing on public access to national parks, which included the issue of beach driving at Cape Hatteras. Congressman Jones, who sits on the Subcommittee, used the opportunity to gain assurance that the Park Service has no intention of prohibiting beach driving.  In recent weeks, the Park Service has indicated that it may be necessary for off-road vehicles to obtain driving permits and that it has plans to prepare studies necessary to develop a management plan for beach driving.
 
 “The most popular tourist attraction of this park is the ability for all visitors with vehicles to drive onto the beach,” Jones said during the hearing. “Unfortunately, the National Park Service intends to pull up the welcome mat from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and build a fence around one of America’s treasures.  They want to prohibit many taxpayers, including disabled veterans and the elderly, from gaining access to the coast. With beach driving currently limited to only 38 miles of seashore, I would contend that beach driving is not motorized recreation, but rather motorized access.”

 In testimony before the Subcommittee, John Couch, Chairman of the Outer Banks Preservation Association said, “Much of the economic fiber of these barrier islands depends on the attraction and vehicular accessibility of our beaches for everyone.  In this unique environment, where eight villages lie within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, free and open vehicular beach access is part of the heritage and tradition to be preserved for today’s users as well as tomorrow’s.”

 Congressman Jones said he will make a decision in the next week whether to move forward with legislation to help protect the rights of our local citizens to access Cape Hatteras.