This Land, Your Land

Where fear of explosions won't keep people away from a certain stretch of beach at Currituck National Wildlife Refuge, officials are hoping fear of a parking ticket will.

Signs warning visitors of unexploded military shells in the sand dunes north of Corolla have not kept people away, so the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers wildlife refuges, is adding “No Parking/No Stopping" signs, a news release says.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in 2007 that unexploded rockets, bombs and machine-gun ammunition lie within 182 acres in the Monkey Island Tract of the Currituck refuge, about a mile north of Corolla. They were left from Naval training during WWII.

The Corps has decided the area needs to remain closed despite cleanup efforts.

This week, Refuge Manager Mike Hoff said signage identifying the danger in the area “has proven ineffective.” The refuge has documented more than 650 trespass incidents last year within the affected area.

The Monkey Island Tract is about a mile wide and a mile across, according to the Virginian-Pilot. People often use the beach, but the area west of the dunes is seldom traveled except by Corolla wild horses.

The new no-parking zone extends from the end of N.C. 12 north 1.5 miles to Mile Post 14.