THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504130180
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Two wild ponies made their way through the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge to Sandbridge the other day. Wild horses, it seems, aren't much more welcome among Back Bay's (other) wildlife than people are. If wild horses can't drag the refuge into a more accommodating mode, maybe a group of concerned citizens and/or a U.S. senator can. Both will try again next week.
On Monday, ``Citizens for Solutions'' will provide a forum (at the Central Library, 1-4 p.m.) for state and federal officials to give thumbs up or thumbs down, and their reasons, on suggested ways to settle their dispute over access from the federal refuge into False Cape State Park. Trails through the refuge are the most accessible route to and from the state park. But last fall the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to close that route for most of the year. The courts, responding to lawsuits by environmentalists, had ruled that refuges must maximize wildlife's well-being. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Parks protested that the closure not only effectively strands the park. It is also an unnecessarily drastic way to minimize already minimal impact human visitors to the park may have on migratory birds nesting in the refuge.
The dispute involves several larger issues. One is Governor Allen's ongoing effort to assert state prerogatives in measuring and meeting environmental needs. Another is the quality and scope of the science used in legislative and regulatory decisions. Yet another is an ongoing bipartisan effort in Congress to restore some bal-ance between cost and benefit to federal legislation and regulation.
Enter Virginia's senior senator, John Warner. He has sponsored legislation to require a compromise and to reinstitute the former, more permissive policy until that compromise is reached. That legislation has been stalled in the Senate.
Meantime, however, the concern demonstrated by the people and their elected representatives has led federal regulators to soften some restrictions and spurred a meeting between federal and state regulators April 20 and 21, the first since last August. The two sides have since disagreed on what was agreed at that meeting. Next week, they should take reasonableness and tape recorders to Richmond and leave their high horses at home. Over time, continued distrust and dissension hurt wildlife refuges more than hiking and biking. by CNB