Massachusetts needs to take back its beaches

I moved to Boston back in January. It’s now June. Yesterday I hopped in my car and headed North … time to take advantage of this awesome Massachusetts coast line!

Beautiful small towns along the coast with small, intimate beaches … what’s not to like??

I got in my car and headed up to Manchester-by-the-sea.

I found a beautiful beach online called Singing Beach that looked amazing! (Plus, I had heard of the movie – so I thought it’d be a cool place to visit)

I drove 45 mins North and upon entry … the town seemed awesome! So many small businesses. So clean.

I headed to the coast and pulled up to the empty parking lot for Singing Beach and I see the price to park … $40. Whoah!

I keep driving toward the beach to check it out and I see two high school kids guarding the sand. $10 to place my feet on their sand. Uh oh…

I’ve never seen anything like this before. But maybe it’s just this one beach.

I continued to drive around Manchester looking for anywhere to park my vehicle and go for a (free) swim, (the ocean’s free right?) but I soon learned … not gonna happen. This town does NOT want me here.

Ok … I’ll try somewhere else. I fire up my phone and find a beautiful beach called Crane Beach near Ipswich. Looks awesome. I drive 30 mins from Manchester to find that … it’s $45 to enter.

Here we go again…

I just got unlucky though … right? It can’t be like this everywhere! So I fire up my phone AGAIN and find some awesome beaches in Gloucester. I’m finally gonna get a free swim in the ocean. Except …. no. $40 dollars to park. (at 3 pm, the parking lot is 98% empty, it’s only 68 degrees outside right now)

Now it’s starting to click … this must be a state thing.

I’ve been to beaches all around the country and have never thought too much of beach laws. I just assumed beaches are free everywhere. California, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, Florida, etc etc … never had any problems at all. Now everywhere I go in Mass it seems to be a problem.

Time to do some research.

Massachusetts has obscure beach laws

The Details

After doing a quick Google search online I learned that Massachusetts follows a very old interpretation of the “Public Trust Doctrine”, which guarantees public rights only for “fishing, fowling, and navigation” – meaning public access for walking, swimming, or sunbathing is not explicitly guaranteed.

In most states, private property ownership can only extend up to the high tide line. In some states like Oregon, the public even has access to all land up until the vegetation line.

In Massachusetts however, private property ownership often extends down to the low tide line. Meaning the owners own the “intertidal zone”. Meaning if you go for a walk on the wet sand and start on public property, and stay on the wet sand, you could technically be trespassing through someone else’s private property if you continue walking on the wet sand. (unless you are fishing, fowling, or navigating)

I’ve read that the thought process of these laws back when they were created was to encourage private creation of docks for shipping and fishing.

Why does this matter?

The beaches and coastline of Massachusetts should belong to the people of Massachusetts. But right now they belong to towns, private home owners, trustees, and other random people who shouldn’t be able to own a beach.

According to this source, only 12% of Mass. coastline is public and open to all residents.

If you’ve been living in Massachusetts your whole life and all you know is Mass beaches then you may just toss your hands up and say “well, that’s just how it is, nothing I can do” … FALSE.

The Massachusetts beach laws are unjust and way more limiting than the laws of any other state in America – by far. The coastal laws benefit a very small minority of people. They mainly benefit:

• private property owners who don’t want random people walking on “their sand”
• local residents who can enjoy “their” beaches to themselves without the influx of tourists

If we live in a democracy, then we (the majority) should be able to out vote and out maneuver these two very small groups of people, comparatively.

So the real question is … why the hell have WE (MA residents) not done this yet??

Why has nothing been done?

While I don’t agree with what these towns have done by de-facto privatizing their beaches by making the parking and beach fees exorbitant for non-residents, I can at least understand their logic. Traffic and crowds are bad in the summer, therefore if we change the laws to limit the non-residents coming in … things will be better for us. I get it.

However, this is simply the wrong thing to do. EVERYONE should be able to access the coast. These small towns are acting in their best interests, which is fine, this is what I would expect them to do. But it’s also our job as Massachusetts residents to act in OUR best interests.

So why has there not been a massive state movement to guarantee access to Massachusetts’ coast line for ALL? I can’t find a good answer to this. Unlike Oregon in 1967, or California in 1976, Mass. has yet to have its defining uprising. There has been massive unrest online throughout the past few years, but nothing huge in person YET.

Beach access needs to become a civil right in Massachusetts.

Public money for private beaches

There are plenty of examples of state funds going to small Mass. coastal towns to maintain and sure up their coastline, and then those same towns excluding everyone but local residents from their beaches. You can’t make this stuff up!

If Mass cut 100% of money to towns that don’t make their beaches 100% public I’d bet that would fix a lot of the problem pretty quickly.

What needs to be done?

This could all be fixed with 4 quick changes.

1. Expand the Public Trust Doctrine to explicitly include recreational uses like walking, swimming, and general enjoyment of the intertidal zone. (right now it only includes fishing, fowling, and navigation)
2. Require municipalities receiving state beach-related funding to maintain reasonable public access for residents and non-residents alike. ($40 parking + $10 entry fee is not reasonable)
3. Prevent exclusionary practices that limit beach access based on residency or excessively high fees. (manchester by the sea)
4. Establish a clearer, fairer framework for public coastal access rights in line with other states like New Jersey, which has strong public access laws and enforcement mechanisms.

Summary

Massachusetts is often ranked as the most liberal state in America. The best healthcare, the best education, the best public works in America. But when it comes to the coastline … Massachusetts has easily the worst, most exclusionary policies in America.

Everyone should have access to the beach. Not just private property owners. Not just local residents. Everyone.

If we truly live in a democracy then we should be able to do something about this.

Sam