THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030497
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
A 30-year deadlock on access to False Cape State Park through Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge has ended with an agreement to shuttle visitors across the barrier spit using environmentally friendly trams.
Federal and state officials Thursday said they have agreed on a plan to end the long-standing controversy of getting people into the isolated park without disturbing wildlife in the refuge. The proposed plan, however, will go through a three-month public review process before it becomes official.
The highlight of the plan is a two-faceted transportation system: an electric tram on the interior dikes or roads, and a specially engineered vehicle to negotiate the beach. The electric tram, borrowed from Georgia Power and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, made a successful test run through the park and refuge Thursday.
The agreement also includes year-round access routes, a master plan for limited development of the park and designating much of the park a natural area. Currently, park visitors can enter only by hiking or biking five miles of trails through the refuge or along the beach. During the winter, access is restricted via the beach alone. Cars are not permitted.
``They have really come up with some imaginative solutions,'' said Fred Adams, co-chairman of Citizens For Solutions, a community group organized to help resolve the access impasse. ``I'm terribly impressed by how hard they worked and how much they accomplished.''
A key to resolving the controversy, said G. Warren Wahl, assistant parks director, was pushing aside 30 years of hostility and starting fresh.
``We all had to put the past behind us and dedicate ourselves to finding a workable solution,'' Wahl said.
Ironically, the impetus for the agreement was Back Bay's tightening of restrictions on access two years ago to protect waterfowl and other birds. (All federal refuges had to re-evaluate public uses as a result of a settlement in a lawsuit.) It set off a firestorm that resulted in Congress ordering the two agencies to reach a long-term solution.
They came to a consensus on the specifics of the plan late last year, but negotiations stalled because they could not agree on the permanence of the agreement. After months of tweaking the wording and running it past legal staffs on both sides, consensus was reached.
The people-mover systems were endorsed as a way of getting large numbers of people through wildlife impoundments with minimal disruption. Twenty people walking past an impoundment at intervals causes more stress on wildlife than a single vehicle carrying 20 people.
``Rather than a series of disturbances to the animals there will be one disturbance,'' said refuge manager John P. Stasko. ``We believe it will provide a higher quality experience for our visitors and the wildlife.''
As part of the agreement, the two agencies are proposing to purchase two or three electric-powered trams that will be used for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta to shuttle visitors on the refuge's interior dikes, or gravel roads. They would be used during the warm months when birds have moved to the edges of the refuge.
A second vehicle, which has been dubbed the ``magic bus,'' is now being developed that could maneuver the sandy beach in the winter when migrating waterfowl populate the refuge interior. This vehicle is basically a hybrid with a heavy-duty chassis and wheel system used in agriculture on the bottom and a bus body on the top. It would likely be diesel fueled for beach use and electric powered while on land.
More than half of the estimated $440,000 cost of the vehicles has been pledged from a consortium of private interests and a federal agency interested in developing and testing alternative vehicles. Other contributors include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Virginia Department of Parks and Recreation, Virginia Power, Georgia Power and other private concerns. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH/The Virginian-Pilot
ELECTRIC TRAM
Use: transporting passengers across the interior trails of Back Bay
National Wildlife Refuge with minimal disturbance to wildlife
Design: built for use at 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta
Size: 56.9 feet long, 4.4 feet wide
Speed: 18 mph
Loaded weight: can support 6,300 pounds
Seating: 36 passengers
Drawing
BEACH TRANSPORTER
Use: transporting passengers along the oceanfront beach
Design: combines heavy-duty chassis and wheel system used in
agriculture and a bus body (not yet built)
Size: 34.6 feet long, 11 feet wide Speed: 24 mph
Loaded weight: can support 7,900 pounds
Seating: 39-52 passengers
Map
The Virginian-Pilot
Photo
DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH/The Virginian-Pilot
Electric-powered trams such as this may be used regularly to shuttle
visitors on the refuge's interior dikes, or gravel roads. They would
be used during the warm months.
by CNB