Well friends, looks like all that research, filing and cross filing has killed my old flagship desktop so now I'm driving a new beastie that arrived this day in a box only slightly smaller than a washing machine and almost as heavy. Pretty scary for this old IT guy when he opens up the case to see the goodies and finds an entire panel made to accommodate eight hard drives...wow! Now if only I could teach this thing to fish!
Speaking of fishing, this place could bust loose any day. We've got gobs of 64 degree water pushing up from the Gulf Stream and with days of SE/SW winds on the way, the big critters wont be far behind. Dave, if your going to stop by, this is the week to do it!
Closures are up all over the place and rumors of closures abound. Just like last year, earlier, larger, and in the end, no benefit to the critters but one hell of a smack to all of us. I see where the president of Audubon (Auto-ban) was nice enough to write Dare County (where most of the Seashore is) to tell us all of just how happy we should be that they are taking such good care of the Seashore for us. Something tells me it didn't come with a check to replenish the food bank down here that's already straining with a 17.5% unemployment rate. Yup, we're all just so happy that your actions have destroyed our way of life and the future of the kids around here. Fitting that your "society" is named after a guy that shot and killed every bird he could.
So we're in the middle of this fight and are now faced with an incomplete DEIS that we've but a few weeks left to comment on. 810 pages of stuff that outlines just how screwed we are. I'm pretty sure my first comment is going to be an objection to the requirement of comment while the DEIS is incomplete because the federally required economic impact study is not yet finished.
This thing is damn right stupid. Piping Plovers are the only threatened bird at the Seashore. If the Plovers are around you can bring a dog into the Seashore on a six foot leash but they want to make it so no pets, namely dogs, are allowed ANYWHERE in the seashore during American Oyster-catcher breeding season. This stinks worse than the Denver stock show.
Great, we get stuck with Obama-care and Derbcare all at once.

If you're interested, some sites to help keep your beaches free and accessible:

http://www.obpa.org/

http://www.preservebeachaccess.org/

I'll be posting more sites and some useful stuff to help with your DEIS comments asap

Tight Lines,

Wheat