Can protections be reinstated for Jockey’s Ridge, the East Coast’s largest dune system? N.C. group wants input.

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.

In 1984, state protections were put in place for the dune system that stretches to the Virginia line, with its tallest point at Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head.

The state ruled at the time that sand blown off the dunes in the area surrounding the park must be returned to protect the dune system’s integrity.

According to the coastal commission, the protections were put in place partly because a man had been removing sand for years from his two vacant lots on nearby Soundside Road to manufacture concrete.

Earlier this year, the commission proposed a new rule to redesignate Jockey’s Ridge as an AEC, and require blown sand be put back in the park.

At an Oct. 15 public hearing attended by about two dozen local residents, Honeycutt told the crowd he lives about 30 feet away from the park’s boundary, and its uniqueness isn’t just geological.

“This beautiful sandbox is quite literally my backyard. It’s a unique place in so many ways,” he said. “Right now, we are being told that we are more divided than ever in our country. I believe that there is more that unites us than separates us.”

He pointed to help pouring in from all over the state and the country for victims of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, particularly from storm-experienced residents and businesses on the Outer Banks.

“My point is that we are all the same team in this,” Honeycutt said. “I believe that Jockey’s Ridge State Park is another place where we find common ground, in spirit and in actuality. It is a living sand dune, a living classroom, a living playground and a living sanctuary that we all have access to, together.”

Comments about the proposed ruling can be submitted to the Division of Coastal Management, 400 Commerce Ave. Morehead City, NC 28557 or to DCMcomments@deq.nc.gov . Include “Jockey’s Ridge” in the subject line.

The Coastal Resources Commission will consider public input and discuss the new rule at its Nov. 13 meeting in Ocean Isle Beach.