North Carolina

Catherine Kozak

Two more shorebird protection areas on beaches in Cape Hatteras National Seashore have been vandalized, the National Park Service Outer Banks Group reported today.

Seventeen bird closure signs were destroyed at a pre-nesting area at the northeast end of Hatteras Inlet spit by Pole Road, according to a news release. Also, two posts and a barrier rope at a pre-nesting area at the west end of South Beach in Buxton were removed, the statement said. The incidents were discovered over the weekend.

Under the terms of a court-sanctioned agreement that is managing off-road vehicle access, the buffers at both areas were required to be expanded 50 meters. The Pole Road remains open, and access has been reduced on the west side of the closure on South Beach.

Five signs marking a closed section of beach on Ocracoke Island were vandalized Monday morning, resulting in expansion of the closure as required by a court agreement, the National Park Service reported today in a news release.

“This was the first deliberate act of vandalism of the 2009 season,” said Cyndy Holda, spokeswoman for the National Park Service Outer Banks Group.

The beach at South Point is one of the pre-nesting closures established in Cape Hatteras National Seashore before March 14 to protect anticipated breeding areas of shorebirds.

HIGH POINT -- All-terrain vehicles and motorcycles used for off-road purposes would have to be registered with the state and their owners would pay an annual fee if a bill introduced this week passes the N.C. General Assembly.

State Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Davidson, introduced House Bill 45 Tuesday to bring oversight and tracking of all-terrain vehicles through the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. The legislation would require all-terrain vehicles or motorcycles for off-road use be registered in a manner similar to the way motorists annually register passenger cars or street motorcycles. All-terrain vehicle owners would be issued a license plate that would have to be put on the vehicle.

LUMBERTON -- A neighborhood dispute over a four-wheeling child ended in a death Saturday in Lumberton.

Robeson County Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said the department received a call that a man had been shot, around 4:30 p.m.

When investigators arrived on the scene five minutes later, Stoney McNeill, 54, of the 300 block of Mud Alley Road in Lumberton, was found lying dead, apparently from a gunshot wound, Sealey said.

A 17-year-old faces numerous charges after fleeing police on an ATV Monday afternoon, officials said.

Around 2:40 p.m., officers tried to stop the ATV at 2200 Carleton Place, but the driver fled, according to a statement from Officer Crystal Williamson of the Wilmington Police Department.

A SABLE helicopter tracked the vehicle and when officers on the ground closed in, the ATV hit a patrol car and other vehicles and caused minor damage, Williamson said.

Murphy – The Upper Tellico Off-Highway Vehicle System is closed for the winter season, the U.S. Forest Service announced this morning.

The system closure is part of a temporary closure order signed in Dec. 2007 and will be closed to motor vehicles through March 31 to limit damage to trails.

The seasonal closure will be in effect for the three winter months each year until March 13, 2012, barring other management decisions that may be made in the interim.

ELKIN — Property owners near this town at the southern tip of Surry County are just plain fed up with people not only trespassing on their land, but the activities that disturb the environment and the peace.

Ray Alberty has posted “No trespassing” signs all over his property that runs along the Mitchell River on N.C. 268, but that doesn’t seem to stop the stream of trespassers who frequent his property to ride four-wheelers, an off-road vehicle, or “mud-boggers” as he calls them.

Another property owner, Shawn Peet, who has to drive down the road that Alberty owns to get to his property, said that he is constantly finding couples “romantically involved,” mostly early in the morning. Peet has a cabin out in the woods down by the Mitchell River and he said sometimes there are so many cars parked side by side with people swimming in the river, he can’t get down to his log cabin.

Stricter limits on beach driving caused a sandstorm of controversy on the Outer Banks this summer, but they didn't steer away tourists.

According to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, year-over-year gross receipts from motels, rental houses and other lodging and gross receipts from meals were up three of the four major tourism months.

August was especially strong, thanks in part to the Labor Day weekend. Gross receipts for lodging rose 13.7 percent over last year, and gross receipts for meals were up 2.8 percent.

A group of environmental conservationists has asked to join the U.S. Forest Service in a legal battle over the fate of one of the most popular four-wheel driving areas in the Southeast.

The Southern Environmental Law Center has asked the court to allow it to become a defendant in the lawsuit brought against the Forest Service in May by four-wheel-drive groups.
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The groups oppose the government’s move to temporarily close the Upper Tellico Off-Highway Vehicle area to reduce muddy runoff in creeks and streams.