Lechuza beach4/14/2023 Texas says public beaches start at the mean high-tide mark, but it allows people to drive or walk on dry sand. Oregon allows public use on the wet sand, but allows visitors access to land up to the vegetation line. ![]() Only a few states - Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Delaware - define public space at the mean low-tide mark, essentially classifying the beach as private. In California, Alaska, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and New York, and elsewhere, public land is defined by the mean high-tide mark - that is, wet sand is fair game. The mean high and low tides - a determination made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - are the invisible barriers that separate public from private property along the coastline in most states. Public space changes with the tide - literally. And that's to say nothing of local rules and planning policies. Some require a state agency to sign off on any limits to public access to the beach. Some states allow people to walk across private land others carve out what's public and what's private. Others hold that the beach is essentially private, except for commercial activities, like fishing or hunting. Others require evidence of years of use by the public - a so-called prescriptive easement. Some states have written beach access into their constitutions. Generally speaking, the beach is one such area.īut the states apply that principle in different ways. The public trust doctrine goes like this: Access to the shore and tidal areas of this country is so important to a community that the government is required to hold access in trust for the public good. In the U.S., beach access isn't governed by a single legal principle but by a variety of state and local laws and the common-law principle of the public trust doctrine, says Angela Howe, legal director for Surfrider Foundation, which is conducting 12 active beach access campaigns around the country. It's an inefficient use of judicial, municipal, and taxpayer resources." You have to fight beach by beach and use by use. It's painful and expensive, and it doesn't always resolve the issue. "People who've known each other for 40 years are no longer talking. "These suits rip communities apart," says Adam Steinman, an attorney who has argued beach access cases at Maine's top court. ![]() Sea-level rise and climate change could intensify this conflict. And more and more, the suits are drawing lines in the sand between neighbors and communities. Over the past few decades, battles between beachgoers and home owners have migrated to the courts - and in so doing removed them from localities' oversight and autonomy. Although beach access is written into the Texas constitution, free access to this public space is in jeopardy after a series of state supreme court rulings supported the claims of property owners, even when storms have washed away the beach. Pickett, who still regularly drives more than 100 miles from his home in East Texas to the state's best beaches, thought he might have to find a new place to surf. Your browser does not support the video tag. Membership for Allied Professionals & CitizensĮducation, Work, and Experience Verificationīeach Drive: Public Rights and Private PropertyĪ documentary film by producer Jessica Schoenbaechler explores the causes and effects of extreme erosion at Surfside Beach (2006).
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