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Building a new camp near the lighthouse or replacing the cabins at the
current Great Island campsite are among the alternatives the National Park Service is
considering as amendments to the General Management Plan for Cape Lookout National
Seashore.
People will get an opportunity to learn more about the four draft alternatives at public
meetings July 7 at the Duke University Marine Lab on Pivers Island near Morehead City. The
meetings will be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Park Service
will accept written comments on the alternatives until Sept. 7.
The management plan for the park is 16 years old and no longer reflects conditions at the
seashore, noted Karren Brown, the park's acting superintendent. "It was written in
1982 and it's obsolete," she said.
That was the DIFF Club's argument last year when Bill Harris, the former superintendent at
Cape Lookout, first raised the possibility of destroying the Great Island camp and
replacing it with a new camp somewhere south of the lighthouse. Such a camp isn't included
in the current management plan, and the club insisted that Park Service rules prohibit
activities that aren't part of an approved management plan. Harris, though, didn't think
the plan needed to be revised.
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He was relieved of his duties as park superintendent earlier this
year after his management plan for the wild ponies on Shackleford Banks angered some
Carteret County residents and some of the state's most powerful
politicians. Brown has been acting superintendent since Harris's departure.
"The decision about the camp can't be arbitrary," she said. "We want to
know what people think about it."
Here are the four alternatives that the Park Service is considering for Davis Island and
the advantages and disadvantages park planners consider for each:
Do Nothing
The 25 cabins would remain at the Great
Island camp, and the concessionaire and the DIFF Club would continue to make periodic
repairs and improvements. The vehicle ferry would continue to run from Davis to the camp,
and the three parking lots for campers would remain at their current locations.
Advantages: The mainland site and Great Island camp are well-known to surf fishermen,
and this option would sustain existing patterns. With 12 miles separating the
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