The television that angler Frank Folb usually keeps tuned to the weather in his Avon tackle shop had a more mundane show playing Wednesday afternoon: a government panel of U.S. senators talking about bird survival, beach driving and the future of life as Folb knows it on Hatteras Island.

In Washington, Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr of North Carolina worked to overturn a federal court agreement that, since May, has kept miles of beaches closed to anglers and sunbathers along Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Under the agreement, night driving also will be banned through much of the fall.

Dole, a Salisbury Republican, introduced legislation to overturn the federal agreement. She testified Wednesday at a Senate hearing on her bill, saying the court agreement threatened the local economy.

Back in Avon, Folb and other Hatteras residents hoped the Senate would change the new prohibitions.

"We're all for protecting the birds," Folb said. "What we've lived under this summer has been unbearable for our visitors and families."

The beach closures are there to protect a series of endangered and threatened species — nests of piping plovers, American oystercatchers and sea turtles. Early statistics indicate the closures are having an impact. Already, the number of nesting pairs of piping plovers has risen from six last summer to 11 this year. (more…)