BEACH NOURISHMENT OF NATIONAL PARK LANDS--DEFINING OUR POLICY

Beach nourishment is an action under consideration by the National Park Service (NPS) for its effect on natural resources. Each park is created with distinct enabling legislation, resulting in over 50 different seashores and lakeshores with sandy coasts. NPS Management Policies (1988) state NPS "will manage the natural resources of the Natural Park System to maintain, rehabilitate, and perpetuate their inherent integrity. In natural zones, natural shoreline processes (erosion, deposition, dune formation, inlet formation, and shoreline migration) that are not influenced by human actions will be allowed to continue without abatement except where control measures are required by law."

With the installation of jetties at Ocean City Inlet, MD, in the mid 1930's, Assateague Island began to erode. This accelerated erosion of the National Seashore is a direct result of artificial structures. Beach nourishment is under consideration to restore this seashore and mitigate for this previous structural action.

Enabling legislation from 1937 states that Cape Hatteras National Seashore "shall be permanently reserved as a primitive wilderness." With an adjacent beach nourishment project in northern Dare County under development and vulnerable sections of Highway 12 within the Seashore, NPS is faced with increasing demands to evaluate the impact of beach nourishment on public lands. At Cape Hatteras National Seashore, artificial nourishment of a natural beach has been deemed contrary to the park's legislation and NPS policy.