Fees are going up for over-sand vehicle permits, as the Trustees of Reservations work to enhance stewardship and generate more revenue for the fragile barrier beach. The county commission approved hikes to annual permits, but held off on approval for daily pass increases.
Dramatic changes are taking place again at Wasque where the Norton Point breach continues to have a mind of its own. The breach has retreated 800 feet since September, leaving one summer house at the brink.
On a misty, windy morning in April 2007 Chris Kennedy, Martha’s Vineyard superintendent for The Trustees of Reservations, had just returned from the part of South Beach in Edgartown known as Norton Point.
The night before Katama Bay had filled to overflowing by the flood of an astronomical high tide, topped off by the overwash and storm surge of a Patriots’ Day gale.
The breach at Norton Point, with its ever-shifting inlet, dramatic changes in currents and resulting severe erosion, has been billed as “one of the most dynamic coastal systems in Massachusetts.”
When George Santayana wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” he was not envisioning people repeating their own mistakes. But that is what is transpiring at Wasque Point on Chappaquiddick this spring. In 2007 the Schifter family completed a large house about 300 feet from the bluff edge. Six years later, with the house poised to fall into the ocean, they are proposing to move it about 300 feet from the edge while damaging the environment and native artifacts and disrupting users of this magnificent landscape.
Shifting sand at both Wasque and Lucy Vincent Beach has uncovered what may be parts of two shipwrecks.
Last Sunday afternoon, Andrew Orcutt of Edgartown and Albany was out walking the shoreline near Wasque and the Norton Point breach. He discovered remnants of what appeared to be a ship in the wash.
Norton Point Closed to Vehicles to Protect Piping Plover Chicks
By JAMES KINSELLA
Over the past four days, public and private officials have closed
sections of Norton Point and East Beach to four-wheel-drive vehicles to
protect newly hatched piping plover chicks and nests with eggs yet to
hatch.
In Massachusetts, the piping plover is a threatened species. After
hatching, the chicks take about 30 days before they fly, making them
vulnerable to the tires of four-wheel-drive vehicles driving along a
beach.
Trustees of Reservations Assume Management of Barrier Beach;
Shorebird Protection Increases but Fishing Access Preserved
By IAN FEIN
Stretching from Metcalf's Hole to Mattakesett Creek, bordered
by the calm surface of Katama Bay and the rough waves of the Atlantic
Ocean, Norton Point Beach is a spectacular place - offering
popular spots for shellfishermen and surfcasters, prime habitat for rare
shorebirds, and a vital access route for people going to and from
Chappaquiddick.
To protect a large group of coastal birds nesting on Norton Point Beach, The Trustees of Reservations have closed the stretch of barrier beach between Chappaquiddick and Katama to off-road vehicles. The closure came Friday when a number of birds hatched, and will remain in place until further notice.
Fishermen, sunbathers and swimmers, however, will find that much of the two-and-a half-mile beach remains open to passive recreation. Access by foot is available from the Left Fork in Katama and from the beach on the Chappaquiddick side.
