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The DIFF Club Board of Directors sent the following letter to the National
Park Service as the club's comments to the agency's draft revisions to the management plan
for Cape Lookout National Seashore.
The Board of
Directors of Davis Island Fishing Foundation (DIFF Club) voted unanimously at its last
meeting July 11 to support Alternative 4 in the National Park Service's draft amendments
for the management plan for Cape Lookout National Seashore.
DIFF has about 225 members who are regular users of Davis Island, known as South Core
Banks in the management plan. We consider the island to be one of the jewels of the East
Coast, one of the few remaining unspoiled beaches in the country. The club's members
firmly believe that the Park Service should do nothing that would change the island's
ruggedness or harm its environment or natural beauty by overtaxing its resources.
For those reasons, we are opposed to alternatives 2 and 3. Neither, we believe, can be
done without drastically changing the island's qualities or irreparably damaging its
environment. Alternative 1 is appealing, but we think the cabins should be upgraded.
That leaves us with Alternative 4. The DIFF Club supports that alternative because:
n It has the
least impact on the environment because it maintains the Great Island camp at its existing
site, an already disturbed area.
n It maintains
the separation between the two major user groups -- overnight surf fishermen and daytime
bathers, picnickers and sunbathers -- thus minimizing potential conflicts.
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n It provides for the removal
of substandard cabins and replaces them with more modern structures that would be better
maintained then are the current cabins.
n It offers the
shortest and safest hurricane evacuation route.
n It maintains
the camp in the center of the island, which is the most convenient location for surf
fishermen.
n It maintains
the traditional ferry service from Davis to Great Island, eliminating the needed for
expensive and environmentally damaging dredging.
Though the we agree conceptually with Alternative 4, we cannot reach decisions on
some of the specific steps contained in the alternative because details are lacking.
Therefore, the club recommends the following:
n The new cabins
be phased in over a number of years.The new camp at Great Island should extend to the
limits of the present water system. The cabins in the camp shouldn't be bunched together,
as they are on Portsmouth Island. Such an arrangement destroys the privacy and sense of
seclusion that are among the assets of the current camp.
n Cabins 10A and
10B NOT be destroyed.
n Electricity
and gas lines NOT be extended to the new cabins from central sources.
n The Parks
Service not require cabins that are so elaborate as to price them out of range of most
users. People now paying $11 a night for a cabin might be willing to pay $18 or $19 a
night but would in all likelihood reduce their length of stay.
n Any changes in
the parking policy should take into account the island's isolation. Cape Lookout is not
Yellowstone, and it would be unreasonable to force users to adhere to length-of-stay and
other parking rules that are more suited to a mainland park. The DIFF Club board |
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