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The National Park Service recently announced that more Americans are visiting our national parks and seashores this year than last year. North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore, America's first beach landscape preserved as a national park, is no exception.

More than 2 million people visit Cape Hatteras each year for its natural beauty, serenity, wildlife and recreational opportunities, and the numbers are rising.

Tourism and wildlife are thriving together at the seashore, now in its second season under a court-approved management plan. The plan, known as a "consent decree" because it was agreed to by seashore management, environmental organizations, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, and Dare and Hyde counties, went into effect in April 2008. The plan includes measures designed to balance the needs of breeding wildlife with other uses of the seashore.

Despite the perplexing efforts of Dare County officials to scare tourists away by depicting the seashore's beaches as closed to visitors, the facts show otherwise. Besides the uptick in park visitation, recently released data demonstrate growth in tourism revenue despite the nationwide economic downturn. In an Aug. 11 news release, the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau reported that "domestic visitors to and within Dare County spent an estimated $777.41 million in 2008, an increase of 1.9 percent from 2007."

Wildlife on the seashore is also thriving under the new science-based management plan. According to National Park Service resource reports, the number of nests laid by colonial waterbirds (species that nest together in groups) more than doubled in 2009 compared to 2007. Similarly, the two years under the consent decree have seen the two highest sea turtle nest counts since the National Park Service began keeping track: a record 112 nests in 2008 and 102 nests in 2009 (with several more weeks of nesting expected), compared to 82 in the pre-consent decree 2007 season.

Despite these encouraging figures, U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan recently introduced legislation that threatens to upset this flourishing balance at the seashore. The bill, S 1557, seeks to overturn the successful consent plan and return to the previous, flawed management plan at the seashore.

Not only would this legislation threaten rare sea turtles and shorebirds that rely on Cape Hatteras, it would also return the seashore to skewed management that favors off-road vehicle users, who are only a small minority of total seashore visitors, over pedestrians and wildlife.

The consent decree was designed to balance the needs of diverse park visitors, including beach drivers, families, anglers, surfers, birders and wildlife. The facts show it is doing just that. Indeed, even at the peak of breeding season, a maximum of 13.7 miles of the seashore's 67 miles of beach were temporarily off limits to ORVs for wildlife protections.

Sound science and sound heads must prevail over the demands of self-interested groups if we are to protect Cape Hatteras and all of our national parks for future generations. As Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, "Especially when times are tough, our parks and public lands refuel the spirit and help energize local economies."

Chris Canfield is executive director, Audubon North Carolina; Derb Carter is director, Carolinas Office, Southern Environmental Law Center.