Law & Order

National Park Service Expands Off-Road Vehicle Access at Cape Hatteras National Seashore

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The National Park Service (NPS) finalized changes to its special regulation for off-road vehicle (ORV) use at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina. The revisions are the result of a SEMA-supported federal law enacted in 2014 that required the NPS to revisit a management plan restricting ORV access to large portions of the seashore. The NPS approved without change the revisions it proposed in August 2016 including a revision to the times that certain beaches are open to ORV use in the morning and extension to the dates that certain seasonal ORV routes are open in the fall and spring. The NPS also replaced an ORV route designation on Ocracoke Island with a park road to allow vehicle access and pedestrian use of a soundside area without the requirement for an ORV permit.

For more information, contact Stuart Gosswein at stuartg@sema.org.