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Cape Hatteras National Seashore Crafts Beach Nourishment Plan

Turbulent seas long have created problems for Cape Hatteras, a long barrier island off the North Carolina coast that is home to the country's first national seashore. Pounding waves and storm surge related to hurricanes and nor'easters shifts beaches around, and even erase them. At Cape Hatteras, over the decades that has meant dune erosion and almost annual repairs to the highway that runs down the island. Against that, a plan has been approved to allow state and local governments to haul in sand from the seabed, when needed, to buttress the island against storms.

Is The National Park Service Struggling To Stay With Its Mission?

Is the National Park Service fully able to live up to its mission? Science is a large part of guiding that mission, but is the agency properly using science to do that? Two veterans who during their careers with the National Park Service were closely tied to the agency's science mission are now concerned that the mission has gotten off track and needs to be refocused.