It seems like the United States Government never stops trying to take over more land in North Carolina for one reason or another. If it’s not land (as in dry land) it’s our air space or our waters. When are our elected officials going to say “enough?”

A good example of how our government seems to be on a never-ending quest to gain control of yet more territory in this state happened a few weeks ago when Gene Wooster from Alliance gave some fishing advice to a friend about where to go fishing in Pamlico Sound.

Wooster is the owner of Mobile East Marine in Alliance and spends most of his time repairing (and selling) boats from his store. From his talks with customers and his vast experience on the water of Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River, Gene has about as much knowledge about fishing for speckled trout and red drum as anyone I know of.

Wooster’s friend, Owen, took his advice and fished the shoreline that was recommended and had fantastic luck catching red drum and a few specks in that location. Remarking to Gene when he returned about the fishing spot he’d recommended to him, Owen told Wooster what a fine day afloat he’d had at his direction. Wooster’s reply was that he’d best remember his good fishing there because it looked like the U.S. Navy was about to “take” that water and incorporate it into the BT-11 (Bombing Target) 11 restricted area. In so doing both sport and commercial fishermen would be completely banned from entering the area. Not only would fishermen be banned, hunters, bird watchers and anyone not involved in practicing for warfare would be banned from using this section our public waterways of the State of North Carolina.

Wooster and a large number of concerned Tar Heels are actively trying to fight-off the Navy’s latest attempt to take over yet more of our public waterways for bombing range(s). They’ve formed a new group called “CEASE-FIRE” (Citizens Earnestly Against Serious Expansion From Increasing Range Encroachment).

The mission of the Cease-Fire Project is for MCAS Cherry Point to cease and desist from further encroachment upon the public trust waters and traditional fishing and boating grounds surrounding BT-11 at Piney Island. These waters have been accessible to boaters for over 50 years with little impact on bombing range operations. CEASE-FIRE intends to have MCAS honor the boundaries which they marked and established when they placed day-markers across the entrance to Rattan Bay and along the surrounding shoreline. We further intend for MCAS to make application for the required permitting process to make said historical boundaries the official prohibited area to be shown on nautical charts and in the Code of Federal Regulations section 334.420.

In recent meetings with the Navy, Wooster and Capt. Owen Lupton (another leader in the fight to rein-in the Navy’s attempts to take over more of our state) get the feeling that the Navy’s planning to go ahead with their plan to expand BT 11 regardless of what the CEASEFIRE group or others feel is wrong.

Cease-Fire’s website can be found at theceasefireproject.com.

The website contains a petition for people to sign to help stop the military’s proposed bombing range expansion.

It’s starting to sound like the OLF (Offsite Landing Facility in Camden County or Beaufort and Hyde Counties) issue all over again. Although the OLF issue seems to be “on the back burner for the time being” it’s not over yet.

A friend was recently at a fund-raiser in Virginia Beach and one of his tablemates was a pilot for the Navy at Oceana Naval Air Station. Not realizing that my friend was one of the landowners within the proposed OLF facility in North Carolina the pilot made several comments to the effect that “Our pilots need somewhere close by to conduct our landings and take-offs without the noise disturbing our neighbors here in Virginia. We also like the idea of being close by our home field (Oceana NAS) where we can wrap-up our practice mission then quickly return to the active social life we have here in Virginia Beach.”

In other words, the Navy wants to give eastern North Carolina all the noise while Virginia Beach gets all the economic and social benefits of a resort community.

It’s seldom mentioned that the Marine Corps already has an OLF on Cedar Island that’s been there for many years and is largely unused. There are close links between the Navy’s OLF proposals and the bombing range expansions.

Many of the Tar Heels I’ve talked with are strongly patriotic people and at times are hesitant about speaking out against the expansion of military operations in our state but say that they’ve “about had enough of this now.” Many are veterans themselves and very familiar with the military way of doing things yet they’re upset with the encroachment of the military beyond their existing (and large) military operations within North Carolina.

There’s no question that the various branches of the military contribute a great deal to our state’s economy. Our state has traditionally been more than friendly toward the military but between the OLF and bombing range expansion proposals, many feel that the military has pushed our patience to the limit.

Another factor that’s coming into the picture is the opposition from the various environmental organizations against the proposed military expansions.

Although the endangered species “card” has been played against military operations at Ft. Bragg, this powerful tool has been largely ignored in the consideration of the proposed expansion of BT-11 (and BT-9) into Pamlico Sound.

Various environmental and governmental groups have it well documented that endangered and protected species such as sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic sturgeon, and even manatees are in the estuarine waters that surround BT-11 (and BT-9).

Data isn’t being made available by the military as to what life is within restricted areas of the bombing ranges located within Pamlico Sound. The military refuses to either conduct such surveys themselves or allow other groups into the restricted areas to study what’s there and if the years of continued weapons testing is having an effect on the wildlife within the restricted areas. If the military has conducted surveys of the areas, the information hasn’t been made available to other citizen groups.

Cease-Fire’s website can be found at theceasefireproject.com.

The website contains a petition for people to sign to help stop the military’s proposed bombing range expansion

With “Tax Time” just around the corner, we’re all very concerned about looming increases in our property taxes. It’s worthwhile to consider what happens to our personal taxes when land is removed from the existing tax base and put into public (or tax exempt) ownership. The military is not required to pay property taxes on land they (make that “we”) own.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has admitted that the federal government owns over one-third of all the land in the United States. With few exceptions this is not taxable land (PILT Moneys). When you add to these U.S. Government tax exempt lands the lands owned by the state governments, county and municipal governments, charitable and other groups such as churches, conservation groups and public (and private) schools and assorted foundations, estimates place the amount of non-taxable land in America today at nearly 65% of the total. This leaves only an estimated 35% of the rest of the privately owned land in America available to be taxed.

Every time you take land out of the tax base, someone’s personal taxes has go up to compensate for this loss of revenue at the government’s level.

Have we had enough yet?