Let’s not rebuild the road on the Outer Banks.

I offer this suggestion not just to save a few million dollars here and there, which is worth considering, but because a higher authority has ruled the road a folly.

That higher authority is nature itself. It gnaws through N.C. 12, the road that hugs the spine of the Banks, every chance it gets.

Hurricane Irene, which won’t hit the record books as a heavyweight storm, punched N.C. 12 into the Pamlico Sound in several places last weekend, including a few spots where hurricanes have severed the road before.

Despite our land deeds and property boundaries, the Outer Banks are entirely owned by nature, and nature likes to make that point with regularity. It would be worth it to listen this time.

Barrier islands are peculiar critters. Their instinct is to wander. They roll over themselves like a tumbleweed, with wind and water shoving their sands westward in an eternal cycle of destruction and renewal.

Only in the last century have humans inhabited the Banks in significant numbers, and humans are fond of land forms that stay put. Now, with hands on hips, those humans are hollering that it’s time for someone to hurry up and put the road back.

No. It’s time to say No.

We’ve put it back, again and again, and it keeps disappearing. Maybe that’s not a very good place for a road.

Hatteras, that jewel of a village plopped out in the Atlantic, reaps millions annually in tourism. It needs that road to bring in the flip-flopped masses.

But the answer is still No. Ocracoke, across the inlet, is accessible only by ferry, and Hatteras needs to join those exclusive ranks.

OK, ferries can’t handle the volume of traffic that a road can. There’s going to be some economic pain.

However, it’s time to recognize that if you put your business or stilted manse on the most fragile of shifting sands, far out on a restless sea, you’re taking a maximum gamble. Call your mom and ask.

Further, it’s not the state’s best interest to pour millions into an ephemeral highway. We’ve known for decades now that the Outer Banks are on a journey of their own, timeless and uncompromising.

Everything we’ve thrown against their migration – jetties, stabilization bags, sand dumped on the beach – has ultimately failed. Nature has plans of its own and nature is going to win.

This is a perfect time to make a stand. At the top end of Hatteras Island, plans are under way to replace the Bonner Bridge. It’s going to cost more than $200 million, which is a lot to spend on a gateway to a ghost road.

So, let’s all do something radical. Let’s stop and think about this a minute.

Hundreds of millions more for a road out at sea?

Or recognize it’s time to cut our losses?

That’s not a tough choice. You can bet nature would agree.

Mark Washburn: 704-358-5007; mwashburn@charlotteobserver.com