North Carolina’s Coastal Resources Commission wants the public’s input on reinstating environmental protections for Jockey’s Ridge in Nags Head, home to the largest living dune system on the East Coast.
Last October, the state’s Rules Review Commission removed the site as an “area of environmental concern,” or AEC, after members questioned whether Jockey’s Ridge is a unique geological formation, stripping an environmental ruling that protected the park. Then in April, the commission rejected a coastal commission request to put temporary protections in place.
“The removal of the AEC poses a significant threat to the environmental integrity and long-term well-being of this unique coastal geologic formation,” Craig Honeycutt, board of directors chair for the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge, said in an October letter to state leaders…