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released after officials with the National Park Service's regional office in Atlanta ruled that an environmental study, or "assessment," of the proposed recommendations would first have to be done. Cape Lookout, Brown noted, doesn't have the staff or the money to do such a study. It could take up to two years to complete it, she said.
Those of us who use the park will be given an opportunity to have our say. Federal law requires that public meetings be held as part of the assessment process. No meetings, though, have yet been scheduled.
Another threat to driving on the island comes in the form of a  petition filed last year by the Bluewater Network and more than 60 other environmental organizations. They  want the National Park Service to ban off-road vehicles in most national parks, including Cape Lookout. In response to the petition, the agency in April curtailed snowmobiling in most of its parks.
The Park Service, though, hasn't responded to the major points in the petition concerning four-wheel-drive vehicles and ATVs. Judging from the near-hysterical comments on Web bulletin boards, one would think that the end is near.
Let's everybody take a deep breath.
The Bluewater petition is indeed a threat, but how serious a one is hard to determine. The petition itself, as a scientific document to justify ORV bans, is a joke. It's so full of generalizations and half-baked notions that

are more political than scientific that it's hard to imagine the Park Service basing rule changes on it.
Banning snowmobiles is one thing, but taking on lawyers in SUVs is quite another. Because of the popularity of off-road driving and the likelihood that a less-then-friendly Congress would take a dim view of a driving ban, the National Park Service is likely to move slowly on this front.
Even so, it doesn't hurt to let the Park Service and local politicians know what you think. Tell them how much you enjoy the island the way it is and how most fisherman are law-abiding and respect the island's natural resources. Suggest to them that they obtain a copy of the Bluewater petition to see for themselves how silly it is. You'll find a list of people to write to on Page 6.
Dick Gray, a DIFF member, recently wrote Marc Basnight, the president of the N.C. Senate whose district includes Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Dick received this response from a Basnight aide: "Senator Basnight is very much opposed to the possibility of a ban on off-road vehicles.  He has contacted the director of the National Park Service voicing his strong opposition to this.  I can assure you that this office will do all that is within its power to have the beaches on Cape Hatteras National Seashore permanently designated as a place where off-road vehicles are permitted."
     In a related matter, the folks at Cape Lookout won't take up DIFF's offer to maintain the back

road. The club has offered to spend up to $1,000 a year to scrape the road and fill in holes. We have argued with little success that the road is the sea turtle's best friend. If the road were in good shape, few people would drive the beach at night, thus reducing the chances of running over nesting turtles or their babies.
Michael Rikard, the park's chief of resource management, responded in the draft ORV study that the back road - or at least great portions of it -- should be closed.
"Heavy vehicle traffic on these interior routes creates holes and ruts that become difficult to pass, so vehicles tend to drive around these places thus creating more disturbed areas," Rikard wrote. "Constant use of these routes create the situation where the elevation of the routes is lower than elevation of the surrounding terrain.  Because the interior routes parallel the beach and are lower than the surrounding terrain, they act as a ditch, catching water when storm tides go through the dunes…"
Closing the road will allow the grasses and other vegetation time to recover and will enhance the nesting success of oystercatchers and other birds.
Rikard's proposal was tabled with the rest of the ORV study, and the road won't be closed any time soon, Brown noted.