THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 12, 1994 TAG: 9408120618
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAROVA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Ernie Bowden's family has been raising cattle on this northern stretch of the Currituck County Outer Banks for five generations.
But this month, the cowboy-turned-county commissioner plans to sell his herd of 100 and get out of the beef business.
His neighbors - the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - are having a cow over his free-ranging bovine.
And Bowden's tired of wrangling with the government.
``My great-great grandfather - and probably the one before him - was breeding cattle on these beaches back when livestock was the mainstay of the entire barrier islands, from the Virginia line to Ocracoke,'' said Bowden, who lives between Corolla and the state line, about half a mile north of the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge.
``I signed a lease for my stock to graze on those lands in 1952. The Swan Island Hunt Club owned it then. And when the government took it over, no one terminated my lease,'' Bowden said. ``I've had cattle stray onto their land, occasionally, sure. But I've gotten them out of there each time. It's just, any time they hear a cow over there, those feds assume its violating their refuge, hurting their little Piping Plovers or eating some endangered sea grass.
``Too much government, that's what I say,'' the 69-year-old, three-term member of the county's governing board said. ``I just don't want to put up with the hassles any more.
``Within two weeks, I'm going to disperse my entire herd. The last of the Outer Banks cattle will be gone. This place will lose a large part of its heritage.''
The cows, wildlife managers say, are causing birds to lose a large part of their habitat. The 1,800-acre Currituck refuge was established a decade ago to offer ducks, geese and other migrating waterfowl a place to perch safe from hunters. Now, development has encroached on much of the birds' breeding grounds.
Cattle and wild horses have stamped out other areas meant for the fowl - or fowl food.
Last summer, a cow trampled one of four nests the federally threatened Piping Plover had built on the northern beaches.
Refuge managers decided it was time to corral the cattle.
``Those cows should've been penned 10 years ago when the refuge was formed. They've destroyed nests, munched dune grass, which is essential to erosion control, and eaten away one of the best duck breeding areas in that part of the state,'' U.S. Fish & Wildlife law enforcement official Jack Baker said.
``We've tried everything from phone calls to threatening letters to get those animals off the refuge. But nothing seems to work,'' Baker said this week. ``That man just won't control his cattle.''
Currituck refuge manager Ken Merritt said Bowden has cooperated in corralling his cows north of the government land. But the cowboy refuses to pen his cattle in once they've been driven away. So the cows keep coming back.
If Bowden doesn't fix a 1.5-mile long fence which transcends the southern boundary of his cows' 1,300-acre leased grazing lands, Merritt said he is prepared to hire a herdsman to remove the bovines.
``In the near future, those cattle will be impounded if Ernie doesn't find a way to keep them off the refuge,'' said Merritt, who has seen as many as 40 cows ranging the unfenced refuge at once. ``It could cost us $3,000 to $5,000 to do it. But it may become necessary.''
Bowden said no more than 10 cows ever cross out of their legal grazing grounds. And although he won't reveal names, he insists other people own some of the animals. Besides, Bowden said, geese eat a lot of his cows' grasses.
``Those cows and horses have been living with those ducks and birds forever,'' said Bowden, who often wears chaps and a 10-gallon hat to board meetings. ``When I was a kid, more than 3,000 cows roamed the beach from Carova to Kitty Hawk. And thousands of more birds nested here then.
``The livestock keep the underbrush down and don't eat anything the ducks would. Those government people just go by the book. They can't see that the animals all could relate and live together.''
They don't, Merritt said. Cows graze grasses down too low for the birds to enjoy. Ducks won't stop to winter if their habitat is destroyed.
``The refuge continues to suffer from these cows,'' Baker said. ``If we can't get that man to move his cattle, we're going to have to go up there and do it for him.''
``They can send another cowboy up here to get me if they want to,'' Bowden said. ``But I doubt he could compete with me.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo DREW C. WILSON/
Ernie Bowden, a cowboy and Currituck County commissioner, tends to
his livestock on his Carova Beach ranch. A dispute with the
neighboring Currituck National Wildlife Refuge has driven him to
sell his cattle.
by CNB