United States Department of the Interior

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

1849 C Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20240

5/13/21 

Mr. Jeff Ruch

PEER Pacific Director

Via E-mail – No Hard Copy to Follow 

jruch@peer.org 

Dear Mr. Ruch:

Thank you for your letter dated December 31, 2020, regarding your appeal of the National Park 

Service (NPS) Regional Director’s decision concerning your complaint about the “Review of the 

Sea Turtle Science and Recovery Program, Padre Island National Seashore” (Review). Your

appeal, filed under the Data Quality Act of 2000 and the guidelines and procedures that govern 

it, requires review and decision by the NPS Director, per Director’s Order #11B. 

We have reviewed your appeal in detail and find that the Review was conducted in good faith, 

and was transparent in describing how it was conducted and the purpose for which it was 

conducted (Review, page 7). The Review is an operations evaluation, commonly referred to as a 

management review, which is intended to assess a program’s strengths and weaknesses and offer 

recommendations and considerations for improvement. The Review was conducted by an 

interdisciplinary team including resource professionals at the park, region, and Washington 

Office levels. The Regional Director’s memorandum to the Padre Island National Seashore 

(PAIS) Superintendent dated June 8, 2020, prescribed a set of managerial actions that were 

intended to further explore and follow up on some of the recommendations that were included in 

the Review.

The revisions to the Review report, posted to the park’s website on December 2, 2020, with a 

new date on the cover of the report, were completed to correct minor information errors and 

provide clarifications that were brought to our attention via your letter. The changes do not 

materially affect the content of the report or its recommendations, but were completed to 

improve the accuracy of the report. The Regional Director’s reply letter to PEER dated 

December 2, 2020, was posted to the NPS Information Quality Correction Requests and 

Responses webpage on January 25, 2021. The Review report, in its final, amended form, has 

been updated to describe the reasons why the report was revised and is located on the park’s 

website.

As was acknowledged in the Review and stated in the Regional Director’s reply, the NPS 

understands the need for public involvement and compliance with the National Environmental 

Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and will do so at the appropriate 

stages of the planning process. The Review report is not a decision-making document or plan. 

Additional planning and engagement with partner agencies and the public will be required to 

identify potential future actions. 
Since the time of the report’s issuance, the park and regional office have conducted numerous 

phone calls and meetings with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries 

Service, and others to increase coordination on the park’s sea turtle management activities. To 

date, no actions have been taken by the NPS that have the potential to impact listed species at 

PAIS and no proposed action for changes in sea turtle management at PAIS has yet been 

identified. As planning continues, the park and regional office will engage and consult with 

Federal agencies and the public as required by law, regulation, and policy. 

The park recently submitted a new project proposal for the development of a beach management 

plan, as recommended in the Review. If funded, this plan would identify and evaluate the 

environmental consequences of beach patrol activities, nest management strategies, and other 

beach management alternatives. Such a plan would clearly require substantial public and agency 

involvement and will be conducted in compliance with all applicable laws (including NEPA, 

ESA, and the National Historic Preservation Act). 

After careful review of your appeal letter dated December 31, 2020, we find that no new 

information is presented that warrants further changes to the Review report. The appeal letter 

restates and amplifies information and differences of opinion previously provided in your 

original letter dated July 16, 2020. Therefore, the remedy sought via your appeal will not be 

granted and the amended Review report will not be retracted.

Sincerely,

Shawn Benge 

Deputy Director, Operations 

Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Director, National Park Service 

cc: John Dennis, NPS

 Jen Wyse, NPS

 Ray Sauvajot, NPS 

 Mike Reynolds, NPS 

 Lisa Carrico, NPS 

 Jennifer Carpenter, NPS 

 Patrick Malone, NPS 

 Eric Brunnemann, PAIS