Public beach along the coasts of the United States has become increasingly privatized and developed over the past half-century. Accompanying this development has been a massive influx of fences, barricades, jetties, and other barriers intended to keep the public away from these privately owned beaches. According to a growing number of recent reports by scientists and environmentalists, these types of barriers play an enormous role in the destruction of our coasts.
The 1960s marked the beginning of the rampant development of shoreline property along our coasts. The efforts of oceanfront property owners, private homeowners’ associations, and coastal municipalities to restrict public access to beaches – and thereby ensure the exclusivity and marketability of their properties – have led to the increasing privatization of America’s sandy shores. As once-public stretches of beach became privately owned, a number of unsustainable development practices proliferated.
Tidal lands, instrumental in soaking up floodwaters, were drained and developed. Sand dunes, which play a crucial role in blocking rising tides, were bulldozed to the ground to maximize ocean views. Jetties, sea walls, and bulkheads were constructed to defend against the assault of incoming tides, but ended up accelerating erosion. Landowners went to great lengths to wall off their stretches of beach from the public, and to delineate their oceanfront property from that of their neighbors. Dikes, fences, and other physical barriers were thrown up by the heap.
According to a New York Times article published in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, these measures contribute significantly to the damage inflicted on coastal lands by hurricanes. The development of tidal lands and the removal of sand dunes have left the Eastern and Southern Seaboards increasingly vulnerable to the assault of hurricanes and other storms. Without tidal lands to soak up floodwaters, or sand dunes to serve as buffers between the ocean and the coast, coastal lands have been subjected to vicious damage at the hands of coastal storms. Jetties, sea walls, bulkheads, fences, and all other sorts of barricades erected by developers to lessen the effects of tidal waters are no match against the powerful winds and tides of such storms, and they are invariably washed ashore at tremendous speeds, and at great costs.
Even without the added impact of hurricanes and storms, these measures – particularly the development of tidal lands and the removal of sand dunes – have made much of our coastline far more susceptible to the effects of erosion and rising sea levels. Without these natural buffers, coastal lands all across the nation are at far greater risk of being eroded, and of being battered by storms.
According to a growing number of scientists, our best defense against the destruction of our coasts would be to declare our coasts public again. An “open beaches” act would put a stop to the harmful – and futile – efforts by private property owners to hold back the sea. It would put an end to the fencing off of public beaches as private domain. And it would better ensure the future of America’s increasingly threatened coasts.