process for a proposed 

 ACOE project. Such 

 projects usually take 

 about 10 years from 

 application to implemen- 

 tation, and parallel 

 CAMA's stringent 

 permit regulations. 



In the meantime, the 

 county will move 

 forward with a smaller 

 project to pump sand 

 from the Brandt Island 

 sand disposal site onto 

 Indian Beach. A portion 

 of the county's hotel tax 

 will fund the project. 



Cole says, "I don't 

 think the county vote 

 was against renourish- 

 ment. Rather, it was 

 more about the way this proposal was 

 structured. I think that all citizens of 

 Carteret County understand that this is a 

 critical economic issue for the county." 



Retreat is 

 Still an Option 



Time was, that North Carolinians 

 simply retreated in the face of the often 

 powerful combination of nature: storms 

 and the shifting islands, says Carmine 

 Prioli, North Carolina State University 

 English professor. Prioli is the author of 

 Hope for a Good Season: The C'ae 

 Bankers ofHarkers Island. 



After the storm of 1 899, residents of 

 Shackleford Banks picked up and moved 

 to the mainland, leaving the island 

 forever. Now a wilderness area in the 

 Cape Lookout National Seashore, the 

 island is known for its wild horses and 

 breathtaking maritime forest. 



Other communities along the Outer 

 Banks dealt with advancing seas and 

 erosion in less drastic ways, Prioli says. 

 They simply retreated up the shoreline 

 out of harm's way. A cottage industry of 



The 1999 hurricane season wrecked havoc on Oak Island - 

 and roads. 



house movers actually grew out of the 

 retreat policy. 



In more recent memory, the Cape 

 Hatteras Lighthouse became an icon of 

 the retreat policy, Prioli notes. The nation 

 held its collective breath in March 1999, as 

 the 100-year-old landmark was moved 

 3,000 feet away from the reach of the sea. 



Relocation of buildings still is an 

 effective option for some beach property 

 owners. Between 1989 and 1995, about 

 250 buildings along the coast were 

 moved landward either on the same lot, 

 or to other lots. 



"Retreat served us well as a policy 

 for generations," says Nags Head Town 

 Manager J. Webb Fuller. It was a policy 

 that most could live with — as long as the 

 population remained low, and home sites 

 were deep enough to accommodate the 

 ebb and flow of the shoreline. 



Much of the Outer Banks' mush- 

 rooming growth took place between 1 975 

 and 1995, decades of low storm activity. 

 Now, building lots are smaller, houses 

 larger and both are more costly. For 

 many, there may be nowhere to move. 



"We are constantly juggling erosion, 



washing away beaches, dunes, homes 



both chronic and catastrophic," Fuller 

 says. "As a community, we now are 

 looking at beach nourishment as a policy 

 that better fits the economic reality of 

 today." 



He adds, "Sea walls or bulkheads are 

 just not an option here. The beach is 

 public domain. Once you harden the 

 shorefront, you eliminate the public 

 beach. We have, and the state has, always 

 championed public access." 



Like his colleagues in the beach and 

 shore association, Fuller would like a 

 dedicated funding source at the state level 

 as leverage for long-term management 

 programs that have the greatest economic 

 and environmental return for citizens and 

 visitors. 



"The state has a responsibility to its 

 citizens to maintain its infrastructure," 

 Fuller says. "That includes roads, water 

 systems and other assets. And in the case 

 of beach towns, the most valuable asset 

 we have is our beach. We can choose to 

 ignore its maintenance needs, or to 

 maintain it. If we ignore it, it will go 

 away. So it makes sense to look at the 

 quality of all our public resources." □ 



COASTWATCH 21 



