Saving the shore

An environmental advocate discusses how humans help and hurt the beach

by Ben Geman

Too many people take the seacost for granted. New England abounds in beaches, but they are more fragile ecosystems than most realize. That's certainly the case in Massachusetts, which has more than 1500 miles of coastline, including about 940 miles of sand beaches. But there's a lot that beachgoers can do to protect the shore, says Peter Shelley, vice-president of the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental-advocacy group.

Q: How is the health of the state's shoreline?

A: The first thing to understand is that the beaches are never static -- I think of them as the signature of the ocean on land. They're constantly changing. In some areas of the state there is quite a bit of change and erosion and movement of the sand in those beaches just from natural causes.

[But] in some cases, I think the natural beach characteristics have been dramatically changed by virtue of the fact that people have put artificial devices in place to prevent the beaches from doing their natural thing -- either because they don't want the beaches to move back onto their house or they don't want the sand on the beaches to drift some other place where local people can't enjoy it, or because they don't want the sand to come into a harbor.

Q: What effect does that have?

A: In some cases, by building a structure that prevents sand from migrating, you starve sand from building up in an adjacent area, so you get a slow erosion of the beaches below that barrier. We see it on the Cape and out on the islands in places; we see some on the North Shore. The other type of activity that is fairly common is building sea walls.

Homeowners are very eager to do this because they want to hold on to their lawns or they want to hold on to their dunes. They don't want the ocean to eat away their property. Unfortunately, it has the exact opposite effect.

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Martha's Vineyard: The world's most expensive beach
The Phoenix picks eight of New England's best seaside spots
One intrepid reporter finds out he's not so "clothed minded" at at Nudefest '99
There's lots happening on the bay side of the ocean

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Q: I can see how that could be a bad thing for the homeowner, but how does it affect the ecological health of the beach itself?

A: Well, it destroys the beach as habitat. In some cases the sea wall has such an effect on the waves that even in low tide there is no area exposed to the sun. It's still underwater because there's been so much erosion. Shore birds and winged birds are working very heavily right at the tideline; they are eating food and sustaining themselves off that. To the extent that the beach is lost or underwater, it's no longer accessible to those birds.

Q: In Massachusetts and Maine, beach ownership is private right up to the water line.

A: It is almost unique in the world.

Q: Ecologically, what has that meant for Massachusetts?

A: I think you would have to say, quite candidly, that in the absence of good public management, which certainly can be lacking, private ownership of the beaches hasn't been all that negative a factor. In fact, it may be a positive factor.

Q: You say in the absence of good public management. How would you rate the state's management of its beaches?

A: It's pretty variable. I think that the state tries to do a good job with most of its beaches. My sense from talking to various managers is that they are chronically underfunded.

Q: For people who are heading out to the beach this summer, what advice would you give them to protect the ecosystem?

A: If a dune area is posted, stay out of it. It's posted for a reason. And even though dunes are incredibly attractive as places to travel in -- they are very mysterious and wonderful and have a lot of appeal -- the dunes really are the heart of the beach. If the sand that is built into those dunes is lost because the structure of the dunes is changed by someone driving a truck or even someone walking or sliding or carousing down a hillside, [we] could lose a section of that beach. So people should respect the dunes.

I think beyond that, it's really the obvious things. It's fun to chase the birds, everyone has done it -- finding a plover nest in a dune is certainly a magical experience -- but you've probably killed the eggs, because the parents might not come back. With the feeding birds, they're spending all their energy trying to gather food, and if they have to divert their energy into running away from five-year-olds or 50-year-olds or dogs, then that is energy they have to make up in order to survive. It's just not healthy for them.

Another thing is bringing pets. Pets don't belong on beaches. Again, everyone has had a dog, I've had a dog, I like to take dogs to beaches, but for most of the public beaches, people shouldn't bring pets because it is very easy for them to get out of control.

Q: There was a piece in the New York Times recently about threats to the country's national park system. Is the Cape Cod National Seashore suffering from some of the same problems that, say, Yosemite and Yellowstone are?

A: Absolutely. It is the demand on those resources from a variety of people, from just bathers to people who want to drive their trucks up the beach to go bass fishing.

I mean, the park system is always trying to catch up, and opportunities [are lost] to research what's happening with the beach -- where it's eroding, where areas are that should be kept off bounds, what the impact is of these off-road vehicles. You know, if you got off-road vehicles off the beaches, you'd be moving the health of the beaches forward quite a bit.

Q: It seems to me that no matter how hard you try to protect the ecosystem, you're going to have some impact just by being there. Would it be useful advice to ask people not to go to the beach as often?

A: Oh man, how do you do that? I mean, it's what they call a tragedy-of-the-commons problem. [But] I think there are certain ways beaches can be managed that minimize impact, and there are also beaches that should be closed and protected for pure sanctuary purposes.

I think a lot of this stuff is common sense. If you're out on the beach and you're thinking, "God, should I be doing this?" you probably shouldn't be doing it. You're going to the beach to lie in the sun, to get your skin fried, get skin cancer, get wet, and hopefully not get eaten by a white shark. If people could just limit themselves to that, and not only clean up what they brought, but pick up someone else's trash if they walk by it, then they'd be doing a great service.