This Land, Your Land

The News & Observer reported today that new rules about driving on the beach at Cape Hatteras National Seashore to be released Monday will set permit fees at $90 to $150 for an annual pass and between $30 and $50 for a seven-day permit.

A 2008 consent decree requires the National Park Service to limit driving on the beach at Hatteras to times that do not conflict with nesting and spawning seasons for endangered species. The agreement, which settles a lawsuit brought by various environmental groups, also closes pedestrian access to specific areas of the seashore for bird breeding season from mid-March to mid- to late-August and for turtle nesting until early November.

Weekly closure notices are available each Thursday in season at www.nps.gov/caha/parknews/newsreleases.htm.

Most drivers taking vehicles out onto the beach at Hatteras are fishermen, a park spokesman told The N&O.

In addition to buying a permit for each vehicle you want to take out to the beach beginning February 15, "permit holders will be required to watch an instructional video," The N&O says.

The Park Service will update maps and provide other information about obtaining permits at www.nps.gov/caha in the coming weeks, according to the newspaper.

The N&O's Crosstown Traffic blog has a .pdf of the 82-page NPS final rule designating off-road vehicle routes and authorizing limited ORV use within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

As fans of the state's Mountains-to-Sea Trail celebrated the opening of a 6.5-mile segment in Raleigh last week, leaders of the Friends of the MST said Saturday they expect another 70 miles of trail to open by the end of 2012.

Kate Dixon and Jeff Brewer said in The News & Observer that the MST should measure about 610 miles after segments open near Boone, Pilot Mountain, Greensboro, Burlington, Hillsborough, Durham and Clayton in the next year.

The entire Mountains-to-Sea Trail is to eventually cover about 1,000 miles between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Jockey's Ridge State Park.

The 6.5-mile Upper Neuse River Greenway Trail opened last Wednesday between the Falls Lake Dam and the WRAL soccer complex off of Perry Creek Road in North Raleigh. It is the first leg of what will eventually be a 28-mile trail along the Neuse River between Falls Lake and the Johnston County line. (Joe Miller has a nice Google mashup map of the trail at his Get Going NC blog.)

"Within five years we expect people will be able to walk from Clayton to Hillsborough on one continuous 150-mile trail," Dixon and Brewer said.

Still, more money and volunteer help will be needed to make the state-spanning trail a reality, the two said.