WELLFLEET – Daytime off-road vehicle access to the National Seashore’s beaches has reached near closure status due to beach cuts and piping plover nests hatching this week.
Park Officials say that the closures are temporary and will last only until plover broods and other shorebird broods fledge or move a safe distance from the vehicle accesses.
Plover management at the National Seashore follows the guidelines developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Piping Plover Recovery Team in 1996.
The guidelines call for vehicle-free buffers to be set up around the plover broods until chicks fledge.
“Due to work done in 2007 on the ORV Environmental Assessment, we are able to look at four other ORV corridor options,” said Seashore Superintendent George Price. “We have been able to maintain a half mile of ORV corridor open during the height of the nesting period on most years since the 2007 EA. We deeply appreciate everyone’s patience, and we assure you that vehicle access will be restored as soon as it is possible to do so without threatening the shorebird chicks.”
Due to the near ORV corridor closure status, parking fees will be waived for ORV permit holders at the three Cape Cod National Seashore beaches in Provincetown and Truro.
