No justification
By Frank Carini /
ecoRI News columnist
Doughnuts, retied yellow rope, and
sawed-off signposts mark where dunes and piping plover nests should rest, in
peace. But thoughtless motorists, empowered by commercials that glamorize Jeeps
pulverizing non-pavement space, treat the Quonochontaug Sand Trail, and the
dunes and beach that run parallel with it, as their private racetrack.
The Sand Trail, 15 feet wide at best in some spots, runs along much of Quonochontaug Beach, one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier beaches in Rhode Island. This fragile stretch of sand runs nearly 2 miles between Spray Rock Road to the Breachway in Charlestown.
It
encompasses some 150 acres, which are largely privately owned — the Rhode
Island Department of Environmental Management owns some of the land at the tip
that touches the Charlestown Breachway. It separates Quonochontaug Pond from
the Atlantic Ocean, and is one of the Ocean State’s most beautiful coastal
spots.
For those such as Westerly resident Michael
Sands, “Quonnie Beach,” as the locals call it, is a tranquil coastal oasis
whose ecological and social value easily exceeds its size.
This barrier beach is “a unique and special
place for us all to enjoy,” according to the Nope’s Island Conservation Association (NICA).
Sands is the nonprofit’s president. About 40% of the Quonochontaug coastal area
is owned and protected by NICA. (Nope’s Island is a
small island in Quonochontaug Pond that is home to a stand of trees.)
The nonprofit’s mission is to preserve Quonochontaug Beach as a “sustainable ecological environment capable of supporting plant and animal life and encouraging passive enjoyment of the beach by residents and visitors.”
This thankless job, including retying cut
rope, being done by volunteers with a budget dependent upon donations and
grants, is made more difficult by jackassery.
State law prohibits vehicles on dunes and
within 75 feet of the dune crest, except on trails marked expressly for
vehicular use. Alteration of the foredune zone adjacent to Type 1 (conservation)
and Type 2 (low-intensity
use) shoreline areas — Quonochontaug Beach is the former — is prohibited,
except where the primary purpose is non-structural protection, restoration,
nourishment, or improvement of the feature as a natural habitat.
Tire tracks and doughnuts don’t provide any
of those services. In fact, they make that work both necessary and impossible.
“We can’t plant seagrass if people keep
driving on the dunes,” Sands said. “It can’t happen when people are trampling
it, and whipping doughnuts, and doing whatever they feel like down here.”
“Whatever they feel like” includes using
the dunes as a toilet.
Vehicles are allowed to cruise the Sand
Trail year-round, but driving on the beach is forbidden and parking is
prohibited on the beach face and along the trail. Doughnuts, not the Allie’s
kind, are most definitely illegal.
The Sand Trail parallels
the shoreline from Spray Rock Road, formerly Spring Avenue, and crosses into
Charlestown, ending on the western side of the Breachway. It provides the only
land access to the peninsula, and crosses properties owned by the Weekapaug
Fire District, the Weekapaug Foundation, the Haversham Beach Trust, the Shelter
Harbor Fire District, the Rhode Island Mobile Sportsmen, the Anderson family,
and the Nope’s Island Conservation Association.
Sands was named NICA’s president last
August, and he’s been on the board for three years. He and the board of
directors are committed to taking a more active role in Quonochontaug Beach’s
conservation.
“This was an old conservation organization
that was really pretty passive, and given the amount of use since COVID, we had
to take a very active role,” he said. “We’ve worked really hard to pull that
together.”
In March, Sands gave a PowerPoint presentation to
local and state officials, including Westerly and Charlestown police, citing
NICA’s concerns about allowing public vehicles on the Sand Trail. He noted this
parade of traffic causes further erosion and accelerates the fragile beach’s
destruction. He said motorists who don’t follow the rules and steal no-parking
signs cause the most damage.
“We’re not believers that driving on the
beach makes a lot of sense,” Sands told me during a recent tour he gave me of
the South County barrier beach. “Public access doesn’t mean vehicle access. It
just means it’s going to go away faster. We should be enjoying it responsibly.”
While he and NICA appreciate and support
the public’s right to the shoreline as
guaranteed in the state Constitution, Sands likes
to note that the same paragraph also talks about protecting and conserving
Rhode Island’s natural resources.
He wants the public to enjoy “our
property.” In fact, NICA is implementing many of the conservation practices
used at Napatree Point, which can
get jammed in the summer. Vehicles, though, aren’t allowed on the Watch Hill
peninsula. NICA’s new practices include creating a board of science advisors,
planting native species, removing invasives, and more signage that points to
beach access.
NICA believes traffic should be limited to
the area’s land owners, for getting to their properties and for restoration
work.
Sands noted the Sand Trail is used by
businesses to drop off kayakers and other beachgoers. All of this traffic, both
legal and illegal, is speeding up the barrier beach’s inevitable disappearance.
“This is a great recreation area, and
everybody has the ability to come and enjoy this pristine piece of property,”
Sands said. “If you’re bombing down here in Jeeps and ripping into dunes, it’s
like finding logging in the middle of a national park. That’s why we’re trying
to raise awareness so that people understand, yes, there’s this beautiful
resource, use it, but don’t drive on it.”
He said there are sections of the barrier
beach, especially the jetty at the Charlestown end, that are in danger of
disappearing, now.
“The water breaches the jetty and comes in
on the backside, and there’s about two feet between the front and the back,”
Sands said. “The next hurricane, it’s going to flow right through. You know,
the next high storm, it’s going to take it right out.”
His March 13 presentation included a chart showing the
state (DEM and CRMC) and municipal (Westerly and Charlestown) regulations
pertaining to motor vehicle restrictions along this section of Rhode Island’s
coast. Vehicle access is strictly limited, at least on paper, but enforcement
is essentially nonexistent.
Sands acknowledged DEM and CRMC don’t have
the resources necessary to effectively enforce 420 miles of shoreline, which is
why he hopes the two municipalities will have the ability to step up their
enforce of Quonnie’s rules this summer.
Sands noted the area is subject to the
Coastal Resources Management Council’s Salt Pond Region Special Area Management Plan (SAMP)
regulations, which apply additional restrictions to ensure increased protection
for the natural resources and coastal features of the state’s salt pond region.
One of the goals of the SAMP is to “restore
barrier beaches, salt marshes, and fish and wildlife habitats damaged by past
construction or present use.” It notes that dunes on barrier beaches haven’t
even recovered from pre-1984 storms, and that “trampling by people and vehicles
remains a major problem.”
The CRMC regulations also note that “south
shore beaches are sand-starved and have an exceptionally narrow and low
profile, which leaves them susceptible to erosion and overwash.”
Most of state’s southern beaches are
eroding. Shoreline change maps show that the shoreline in many places,
including Quonnie Beach, receded more
than 200 feet between 1939 and 2014, according to CRMC.
“Coastal barriers are constantly shifting
landforms that shield the salt ponds, wetlands and the low lying mainland from
the ravages of coastal storms by absorbing and dissipating the energy of storm
driven waves,” according to the CRMC document titled Beaches and Sand Trails of Southern
Rhode Island.
Sand’s presentation included photos showing
recent damage and recent motor vehicle violations. A 2023 NICA-made video documents a host
of illegal driving and dune parking destruction. Most of the vehicles are
Jeeps, with some pickups.
NICA has also documented, with photos here and here, of the rope used to identify piping plover
nesting areas cut and tire tracks marring the protected areas.
Fourteen years after the “Great New England
Hurricane” ripped through an unsuspecting populace and its hardened shoreline,
a group of Quonochontaug Pond residents bought much of a barrier beach to
protect it from future development.
The hurricane of 1938 pummeled a 7-mile
stretch of South County barrier beach, including Quonochontaug. Ninety-nine
percent of the shoreline properties, some 700 buildings, were demolished.
NICA formed in the wake of that 1952 land
purchase, by Nope’s Island Association Inc.
As a barrier beach, Quonnie protects local
salt marshes, Quonochontaug Pond, and the coastal communities that lie behind
it from the surge of Block Island Sound and rising sea levels. But erosion — by
both Mother Nature and irresponsible humans — is weakening the beach’s defenses
and putting its own future at risk.
This stretch of barrier beach also provides
habitat for many species of plants and animals, some of which are endangered or
threatened, such as the piping plover, American oystercatcher, and least tern.
A study conducted last year by the Rhode
Island Natural History Survey found the following plants and animals on the
beach: 79 plant species, including five rare species and, unfortunately, 10
invasive species; 61 bird species, including one federally threatened, one
state endangered, and seven of state concern; 10 species of mammals; and
several species of invertebrates, including dragonflies, moths, tiger beetles,
and horseshoe crabs.
Dune plants are vital to the health and
stability of beaches, especially barrier beaches. They gather sand, shelter
wildlife, protect wetlands, and limit coastal flooding.
Besides vehicle traffic, illegally parked
cars, and all-terrain vehicles, this stretch of South County coast is also
being trampled by careless feet.
Sands said that while great care is taken
with signs and fencing to make sure visitors don’t walk upon the dunes and
trample beach grasses and vegetated areas, it is a significant and growing
problem.
The cutting of the yellow rope, though, is
done by selfish motorists who know they shouldn’t be using this space to park
or do doughnuts but feel entitled because they own a Jeep and bought a $75
permit.
Frank Carini can be reached
at frank@ecori.org. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.