US Navy Plans To Expand Off Limits Area In Pamlico Sound
July 10, 2008
The military is looking to increase the size of the bombing range in the Pamlico Sound putting off limits some prime fishing and hunting areas raising the ire of many of the sportsmen in the state.
Joe Albea co host of Carolina Outdoor Journal as well as one of the strong advocates in the OLF fight sent out the following about this issue;
The US Military is currently working on plans to expand two of their bombing ranges (BT-9) and (BT-11) located in the Pamlico Sound. This expansion continues the trend by the military to gobble up as much (land & water) of the N.C. coastal plain as they can. They are doing this under an EA (environmental assessment) which will move the process quicker than an EIS (environmental impact study) and with less public input. All of this started in 2000 with the OLF(outlying landing field) and MOA (military operational area) expansion…… which were stopped.
This bombing range expansion needs to be stopped as well. The military currently owns thousands of acres of quality fishing and hunting areas that are closed to public access. Unknown damage to the environment is occurring due to live fire operations that are not being monitored by the state ( military will not allow access).
The Pamlico Sound is one of the largest estuarine nurseries in the United States and is important not only to fish populations in this state but the entire east coast and gulf coast. This expansion will not only adversely affect fish populations but also control your access to these areas.
Joe Albea
Greenville
The Camo Coalition has also sent out an alert about this issue;
Cherry Point Marine Air Station is trying to expand the Bombing Ranges in Pamlico Sound, which will result in further loss of high quality fishing, boating, and hunting grounds to North Carolina sportsmen as these areas are placed off-limits. The Navy has released an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the new range areas. An EA is a shortcut for an full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which looks in depth into alternatives and impacts. The impact of closing these substantial new areas in the Sound will be great and can not be adequately presented in an EA. We need to have a full EIS on this important proposal from the Navy before they go any further.
Expansion of the Range at Bryant Shoals will place many thousands of additional prime fishing grounds off-limits and will force boaters to detour widely into more treacherous waters in storms. The Range at Point of Marsh in Rattan Bay will exclude fishermen from the best shoreline fishing ground in the State and will add one and one-half miles to the existing four mile circle closed to entry for any reason. No compelling military reason has been given for this expansion. The current target zones have served the military well over the years and expansion cannot be justified given the information presented.
All North Carolina Watermen, Fishermen, Boaters, and others who want to preserve this area for public use need to oppose this usurption of the public domain for unsubstantiated purposes. The Navy is not providing a place for e-mail submissions of public comments for some reason, so we will have to send a written response. We will provide a suggested response under the “Take Action” link that you can edit, print, and send by postal service to the person and address that will be given. We will send a copy of your response to your Congressional Delegation by e-mail so they will know that this incursion by the Navy will be as controversial as OLF.
Although many of us are strong supporters of the military we’d like to see a bit more information and justification for taking this area over and putting it off limits. It would appear that there was an effort on the Navy’s part to sneak this one in under the radar which only increases our suspicions in light of the shenanigans that was pulled with the OLF deal. There is no email address available to voice your concerns so you’ll either have to snail mail it or fax it;
Susan Admire
Naval Facilities Engineering Command
6506 Hampton Boulevard
Norfolk, Va 23508
or fax to: (757) 322-4894.
Camo Coalition has a letter already typed out that you can fill in your information and print to send off the deadline is coming up quick, 17 July 2008. Please make your voice heard on this before we lose some prime costal area.
NC Leaders Propose 6 Alternative OLF Sites to Navy
September 19, 2007
The US Navy put on hold the proposed OLF site in Washington County after a loud oppositional outcry about the site. The proposed Washington county site would put the landing strip right in the heart of the Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge and threaten important winter waterfowl habitat.
Two of the new alternative sites are centered in rural Gates County, and two are in Camden County in northeastern North Carolina near the Virginia border. Some aircraft noise could affect neighboring counties such as Currituck and Hertford.
The northeastern sites are 20 to 50 miles from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., the base for most of the squadrons of Super Hornet fighter jets that would use the airfield.
Also on the list are two sites in southeastern North Carolina. One site is in the Angola Bay game lands on the border of Duplin and Pender counties. The other is the Hofmann Forest, a research forest in Jones and Onslow counties.
Environmental groups said they wanted to study the sites in more detail before endorsing any. But they did not express the immediate opposition that erupted over the Washington County site.
The secretary of the Navy is reviewing an analysis of the six new North Carolina sites and 10 others offered by Virginia. The Navy is expected to decide by mid-November whether to undertake in-depth environmental reviews of any of them.
All six of these sites were on the original list that the Navy looked at but all were initially ruled out but maybe this time things will be different.
Environmental groups successfully challenged in court the Navy’s selection of the site near the national wildlife refuge. They came away from Tuesday’s meeting encouraged by a tone of cooperation.
I hope they are right but somehow I think if the sites were rejected once by the Navy there is little hope that they’ll suddenly be acceptable. It will also be interesting to see if any sites will be acceptable to many of the environmental groups.
Virginia Congressional Delegation Offers Alternative OLF Sites
July 10, 2007
In a closed door session Virginia officials have offered the Navy alternative OLF sites.
“Finding an appropriate outlying landing field location is considered to be the key to a future of Oceana,” said Robert P. Crouch Jr., Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s assistant for commonwealth preparedness, who presented the sites on Capitol Hill.
Of the Virginia sites, Surry and Southampton counties each have three potential sites, two are in Sussex and Greensville counties, another straddles Sussex and Southampton counties and the northernmost site is in King and Queen County.
The sites are “largely agricultural properties,” Crouch said.
Hopefully an alternative will be identified so the Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge will definitely be off the list. I came across this photo journalist’s story about Site C in the Greensboro News & Record that is certainly worth a look so check it out. He has capture many of the images that those of us who love that area have seen and experienced as well as explain what the fight is over.
Other Stories I’ve done on the OLF
Moose’s Shirt Starts Some Conversations In Moose Wyoming
June 6, 2007
Little did I know that a hunting shirt from the 2nd annual NCDeer.com Tundra Swan Hunt would launch some conversations in Moose Wyoming. Moose Wyoming is a small town at the gate to Grand Teton National Park and where one of the National Park’s Visitor Center is located. Early in our trip I was in there wearing the T Shirt when a man stopped me and asked me about Tundra Swan Hunting. I had the opportunity to share some of my experiences hunting tundra swan and he proceeded to tell me that he worked with Utah Wildlife and had hunted Tundra Swans himself in Utah. Tundra Swan hunting is only allowed in a small number of states so meeting a fellow hunter is great. Also the fact he worked for wildlife I figured he might be able to clarify something for me because I saw some swan hunting photos at a sporting goods counter but know one there knew what kind of swans they were but “maybe trumpeters”. Well trumpeter swans do frequent this area there is no open season on them because the numbers are still low. Utah actually makes an effort to educate swan hunters on how to tell the difference between the two species so to assure that hunters take tundra’s and not trumpeters. You can take there on line course to help you identify the difference between the two if you’d like here on Utah’s Wildlife Page. Trumpeter Swans are not a specie that frequents North Carolina the other swans we have here are non migratory mute swans.
That was pretty cool to meet him and swap info about each others state. Little did I know that wearing this shirt again towards the end of the trip would spark another great conversation in basically the same place. My wife and I were making our way back south from Yellowstone when we took a break and stopped again in Moose. As I walked into the visitor center one of the Park Rangers on duty said “I bet your from Eastern North Carolina” kind of impressive seeing where the back of my shirt was not visible where it talked about the Tundra Swan Hunt. The only thing he could see was NO OLF on the front of my shirt and he knew exactly what that meant. We had a good conversation about the issue and where it stood at that time it seems the Park Ranger was from Eastern North Carolina and had been home recently seeing all the NO OLF signs on peoples front lawns.
That was cool and an unexpected turn of events that broke some ice and let me have conversations with folks from another part of the country but we shared some common grounds for sure.
Of course today there was some late day developments on the OLF issue when the House of Representatives Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee stripped the OLF funding from the budget. This is great news and we’ll continue to follow any additional news on this.
More Info & Stories I’ve done on OLF
House Tells Navy No OLF at Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge
May 20, 2007
Late last week the US House attached wording to the defense bill that bars the Navy from building the OLF in Washington and Beaufort Counties in North Carolina and sent this on to the US Senate. This is great news and a good first step. If this language remains in the bill that is eventually sent to the President and he signs it into law then the Pocosin Wildlife Refuge will continue as a refuge for many important creatures.
This is not the victory we seek but a very good step towards it. Other issues that have not been discussed are the lands that the Navy has already taken. I certainly hope that any land will be returned to the families who owned it for many generations.
Other Stories I’ve done on OLF
Congressional Bill to Lock Navy Out of Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge is Being Written
May 9, 2007
The Raleigh News and Observer is reporting that a bill is being written to keep the Navy away from the Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge;
Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield, both Democrats, are trying to insert language regarding the airstrip into the annual Defense Authorization Bill. The committee is trying to finish writing the language of the bill today, a process called a “mark-up.”
The bill is a sweeping piece of legislation that covers national defense programs. Individual lawmakers often use the annual legislation as a vehicle to shape specific policy.
The language regarding the outlying landing field isn’t final, but Price spokesman Paul Cox said it will include restrictions on the Navy’s plans for the airstrip.
Needless to say if this pans out it will be great news for all of us who oppose the construction of the OLF on this particular site.
Additional OLF Stories I’ve Posted
OLF Hits LA Times
May 7, 2007
The story of the US Navy attempting to take on a small ban of farmers to take their family farms and portions of a National Wildlife Refuge has become a national story.
PIKE ROAD, N.C. — The Navy wants every last one of Gerald Allen’s 1,168 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat along the T.G. “Sonnyboy” Joyner Highway.
It wants all 1,000 acres of C.E. and Maurice Manning’s rich blacklands, farmland their great-grandfather first plowed and planted in the 1880s using a horse and a mule as collateral.
The Navy also wants the flat coastal land where Donald Stotesberry runs an air park that provides crop-spraying planes for local farmers. It wants his house and yard too.
The federal government seeks to seize this and much more, 30,000 acres in all, for a pilot training facility in rural eastern North Carolina — swallowing up family farms and threatening the tranquillity of the vast Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
In raucous protest, farmers recently drove their tractors and combines to a Navy-sponsored hearing on the proposed 8,000-foot runway, which would be used to train F/A-18 Super Hornet jet pilots to land on aircraft carriers.
“The Navy’s acting like a bully,” said Dennis Bowen, 47, who stands to lose 100 acres of farmland cleared by his grandfather half a century ago.
Joining the farmers in opposing the plan is an unlikely alliance that includes conservative property rights advocates, liberal environmentalists, the National Rifle Assn., the NAACP, hunters, bird-watchers and retired military veterans.
“We got everything from tree-huggers to gun nuts,” one farmer joked.
With the added attention hopefully more pressure will be applied to the US Navy to look at the other potential sites and to leave Pocosin Lakes alone. There is more then just birds and a few farmers that stand to lose if the Navy gets it’s way. The entire area will suffer and be forever changed.
Allen, 64, who farms 2,300 acres, served four years as an Air Force jet crew chief. “It’s not about hating the military,” he said. “It’s about hating the politics — bringing noise and disruption down here because people in Virginia don’t want it up there.”
Dozens of farmers would go out of business under the plan, Allen said.
Ronnie Gibbs, who sells seed and fertilizer to farmers, said the economic effect of the runway would ripple through local communities that relied on farming.
“I’d pretty much be knocked out,” Gibbs said. “So would the grocery stores, supply houses, all the people who work for farmers…. It would ruin us all.”
We’ll continue to follow this story and we’re hopeful that the Navy will come to their senses soon.
Navy Stands Down?
May 4, 2007
Reports out of Washington DC is that Secretary Winters has told the North Carolina Congressional delegation that the Navy is looking at the alternative sites for the OLF. This will be a big victory if it’s true. We will continue to watch for further developments in this ongoing battle.
Washington Daily
has a more guarded story.
Navy Continues to Push-On with Washington County OLF
May 2, 2007
Despite the opposition from basically every state politician, the entire congressional delegation from North Carolina and overall public opinion the Navy continues to push – on with the plan although it would seem that they have lost some of their vigor. Although it would be easy to assume the plan is dead we must continue to fight till the bitter end. Public opinion period ends on May 9th but Congressmen Butterfield & Price have pressed for a 45 day extension on the public comment period thus far the Navy has had no comment on the extension request. I don’t think extending it will do much I think the Navy just needs to move on and work with state officials and find a workable site.
The Winston Salem Journal is reporting that;
Navy Secretary Donald Winter has decided to seriously reconsider alternative sites for a proposed landing field in eastern North Carolina, a congressman said Wednesday.
Winter met Wednesday with Reps. Walter Jones, a Republican, and G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat, amid overwhelming public opposition to the Navy’s preferred site for the so-called outlying landing field in Washington and Beaufort counties.
I don’t know about anyone else but I’m hopeful that this is the case and Secretary Winters takes the Washington County site off the short list.
Have You Heard about the OLF?
April 24, 2007
According to a new Elon Poll only half of the people of North Carolina are even aware of the Navy’s plan to build an OLF. Myself I think that’s pretty good because for the longest time it was pretty much a local issue. The No OLF people really did a good job of getting this out and making it a statewide issue. There is no “only” in it I doubt there is many issues that start off as obscure as this issue and capture the focus of a lot of folks across the state. The important thing is that 55% of those who know about the issue don’t support the construction at the Navy’s preferred location and more importantly almost all the politicians’ side with the majority on this. Some how I suspect keep the statistics and change the issue the word “only” wouldn’t be included.
Dole Tells Navy No
April 19, 2007
Senator Dole has written the secretary of the Navy in opposition to the planed OLF site in Washington County. This is hopefully the final shoe to drop on the Navy’s ill conceived plan to build next door to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife refuge. Senator Dole’s opposition plus her assignment on the Armed Services Committee should really end the Navy’s threat to the environment.
We can’t let down now but things are looking brighter today then they have in a while. Thanks to Senator Burr, Governor Easily, Senator Dole and the rest of our leaders who have come out to support the families of Washington County.
Additional Stories I’ve done on OLF
Last OLF Public Hearing Held
April 18, 2007
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The last public hearing on the Navy’s proposed Outlaying Landing Field next door to Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge was held in Charlotte. There were approximately 300 people at the meeting which is very good considering it is on the opposite ends of the state. The resounding response to the Navy was NO… find another place where the impact is not so great on wildlife & fragile habitat. What will happen now? I’m not sure ,I hope the Navy listens to the public comments as well as staff from US Fish & Wildlife and North Carolina Wildlife Commission.
Moose Droppings is a place that chronicles my journey, Ill explore new places and ideas Ill learn new things and Ill teach the things Ive learned to others. Join me on the adventure and hopefully it will help you in your outdoor endeavors.
