False Cape State Park and Back Bay Wildlife Refuge lie on a spit of land at the northern end of North Carolina's Outer Banks barrier reef. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and a shallow inland bay to the west, the state park is directly south of the national wildlife refuge and cut off from the rest of the state. The inland route to False Cape is controlled by Back Bay Refuge management and not always open to the public. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's management issues regarding public use of the refuge are complex. Fish and Wildlife maintains Back Bay as a waterfowl sanctuary and a preserve for endangered species.
Humans traveling through the refuge can disrupt wildlife feeding and nesting activities.
In 1996, when then-Governor Allen of Virginia pledged to make all the state's parks accessible, False Cape State Park was the most isolated in the system. With access a priority, state and federal agencies finally agreed to put in some kind of transportation system through the refuge. An Environmental Solution Faced with the potential of increased vehicular traffic in the refuge, Fish and Wildlife contacted SCAT when a transportation system was first proposed, as Wilson recalls. John Stasko, manager of the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, had worked with SCAT as manager of Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, Fish and Wildlife's preserve for highly-endangered species. Patuxent had a problem with exhaust-pipe pollution harming whooping cranes nesting on the ground.