THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412040093
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Frustrated by political maneuvering and lack of cooperation from state and federal officials, the city's conservation community will try to resolve the access conflict involving False Cape State Park and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
A daylong workshop, ``Citizens for Solutions,'' will be held in January by the Virginia Beach chapter of the Audubon Society to find a compromise between the feuding agencies.
``We're so torn on this issue,'' said City Councilman Robert K. Dean, who presides over the Environmental Green Breakfast which tackled the issue at its Saturday meeting, ``that we're hoping the community will come up with solutions so emotions won't allow all of us to become totally polarized on this issue.
``We're all for preservation, but at the same time we believe there should be places to view nature in action.''
At issue is Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge's action closing much of the interior roads, or dikes, to protect migrating birds from November through May. Most visitors to adjoining False Cape would hike or bike along the refuge dikes to reach the state park. The northern 1 1/2 miles of the refuge has remained open for walking, biking and wildlife observation.
Now, park visitors must make the 10-mile round-trip trek along the refuge beach, a more formidable route than the dikes because of sand and tides. The park also can be accessed by boat.
Car traffic is prohibited except by special permission.
Refuge officials maintain that the seasonal closure is critical to the health and welfare of wintering waterfowl because human activity prevents them from feeding and resting properly. And the refuge's primary mission is to protect birds, officials say.
The state, however, calls the act excessive regulation and asserts that the refuge is denying its citizens reasonable access to their own state park. The state also maintains that the refuge's wildlife study that led to the closure is flawed.
Managers of the refuge and the state park appeared at Saturday's Green Breakfast to plead their cases.
Acting refuge manager Joe McCauley said the way to preserve wildlife for future generations is keep people out, while park manager Bryan Anderson says allowing people to experience wildlife is the way to develop appreciation and therefore preservation.
``It's an interesting debate because they're both right,'' said Fred Adams, president of the local chapter of the Sierra Club and a member of the Audubon Society. ``I don't know exactly where the compromise is.''
The two government agencies met in August and agreed to a yearlong planning process to resolve the issue. That quickly fell apart.
The state claims it agreed to continue meeting only if the federal government put the closure on hold during negotiations. Federal officials, however, said that was never agreed to and implemented the closure Nov. 1.
Federal officials continue to try to initiate a dialogue, McCauley said, but the state has refused.
Since August, the policy battle has evolved into a political battle with Gov. George Allen railing against the ``overbearing and uncaring federal bureaucracy.'' Several members of the Virginia delegation to Congress have called on Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to overrule the ``extreme'' and ``unwarranted'' closure.
Several conservationists wonder if the issue would have been resolved by now if the governor had not stepped in and used False Cape in his continuing conflict with the federal government.
``I think we, the community, can come to a solution on the local level and take it to the agencies,'' said Mary Heinricht, an environmental activist. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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