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Public, committee discuss Masonboro management

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The future management of Masonboro Island was the topic of discussion during two meetings Monday, Oct. 27, and Tuesday, Oct. 28, during which the public and members of the Masonboro Island Local Advisory Committee shared opinions about the subject.

Chris Ellis, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration social scientist, and staff from the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and Estuarine Research Reserve coordinated both meetings.

Every five years the coastal reserve is tasked with updating its management plan for its 10 statewide sites and the meetings serve as one of the first steps in drafting the 2016-2012 management plan.

The public input meeting Monday evening drew a crowd of 37 people. A group of those in attendance were members of Masonboro.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the island.

The crowd was split into groups to develop ideas about different topics surrounding the island’s management, like current and emerging issues, public perception of the coastal reserve, community benefits of Masonboro Island and how the coastal reserve could improve its relationship with the community.

Some of the most common responses to those topics included balancing the human impacts on the island with the pristine animal habitats, assessing the effects of sea level rise, increasing the public awareness of the coastal reserve and its programs and maintaining free and open use for recreational purposes.

Masonboro.org President Richard Johnson said making sure the coastal reserve supports a commitment to public recreation on the island was a topic he wanted to stress.

“We have a great relationship with the coastal reserve and we feel like we have some justified concerns about how some of the language may be less supportive of public recreation,” Johnson said. “Plus the language [about public recreation] in the management plan has gotten more and more watered down.”

Hope Sutton, coastal reserve stewardship coordinator and southern sites manager, said she was pleased with the turnout for Monday’s public input meeting and the level of public engagement was expected.

“That is one thing about Masonboro, you never have to be concerned that there are not people who care,” Sutton said. “It is a better place to be than some of our other sites where we have a challenge rallying interest; we never have that problem here.”

Many of the same concerns about Masonboro’s current and future management were also expressed in the Masonboro Island Local Advisory Committee meeting the following day where Ellis posed similar questions.

Much of the conversation around the current and future management of the island revolved around two main ideas: continuing stewardship of the island as a living research laboratory for coastal systems and species as well as a public recreation area, and developing better public understanding of the coastal reserve and its programs.

When posed the question of what single activity was the most important for the coastal reserve to continue the next five years, the LAC members’ responses included research, stewardship, management and promotion of the island, the system-wide monitoring program, promoting responsible public use of the island, and balancing research, education and recreation.

In response to the question of what issue the Masonboro coastal reserve was most uniquely positioned to address, most of the responses centered on using the uninhabited barrier island’s pristine habitats and coastline to study bird and turtle species of concern, human impacts on a barrier island and the effects of coastal system concerns like sea level rise, erosion and the effects of terminal groins.

Sutton said all of the preliminary suggestions and findings from the meetings would help address some of the broad topical areas addressed in the plan.

Ellis said the draft coastal reserve management plan would be presented during a pubic meeting in fall 2015 and available for comment.

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