National Park Service Disregards Importance of Access

National Park Service (NPS) policies provide some of the most glaring examples of this administration’s disregard for recreational angling and its embrace of preservation as opposed to conservation.

Here is what the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation has to say:

“The sport fishing and boating community has been subjected to a recent disturbing trend within the National Park Service of disregarding the importance of providing access to sportsmen and women on our nation's public lands.

“The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on National Parks highlighted one such example, in Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreation Area, N.C., during a hearing held on Wednesday, June 27.

“Among the bills included at the hearing was "Preserving Public Access to Cape Hatteras Beaches Act" (S. 2372), which would address the severe restrictions on public access to one of the East Coast's most popular surf fishing areas in Cape Hatteras.

If passed, S. 2372 - a companion bill to H.R. 4094 - would reinstate the 2007 Interim Management Strategy governing off-road vehicle use in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area which allows for a more balanced approach to fish and wildlife management concerns and provides for adequate recreational fishing access.

“The Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation signed on to a support letter on S. 2372 which the recreational fishing community circulated to Senators prior to the hearing.”

Florida’s Biscayne National Park is another target for NPS’s look-but-don’t-touch policies. It wants to create large marine reserves --- no-fishing zones --- that would close more than 20 percent of the park’s public waters to fishing, boating, and other recreational activities.

 Go to this CSF page to express your concerns to your senators and representatives about the access threats to these public resources.