Massachusetts Ratings

Indicator Type	Info	Status


Beach Access	8	3

Water Quality	7	6

Beach Erosion	9	-

Erosion Response	-	7

Beach Fill	6	-

Shoreline Structures	7	3

Beach Ecology	7	-

Surfing Areas	2	5

Website	7	-

Explain this chart

Massachusetts Beach Access

Policies

Massachusetts is one of five coastal ocean states (the others are Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia) that do not own the intertidal zone. As a result of a Colonial Ordinance enacted in 1647, private property extends to the low tide line (Mean Low Water). Although three important public rights were retained in the ordinance — fishing, fowling and navigation — the courts have been strict in holding that the public does not possess additional rights to the intertidal zone.

Although a majority of the Massachusetts shoreline is privately owned (see below), the state is committed to helping people enjoy publicly owned coastal areas, with the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) taking a leading role in making the coastline accessible to the public. Since the late 1970s, when a concerted push toward shoreline acquisition began, EOEA agencies have spent millions of dollars to purchase, improve, and maintain shoreline property, and to provide grants to coastal communities to promote public access. EOEA's Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR, formerly the Department of Environmental Management and the Metropolitan District Commission), Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), Division of Conservation Services (DCS), and Department of Fish and Game (DFG) are all involved in coastal access improvement. Although acquisition efforts have declined in the last decade due to skyrocketing land costs and a scarcity of undeveloped coastal properties, the grand total of more than 100 miles of state-purchased shoreline since 1977 is impressive, and more is being bought as additional funding becomes available. One new source is NOAA's Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP), under which Massachusetts has developed a comprehensive plan that identifies priority candidate areas for the selection of future acquisition projects. The state plan was approved by NOAA in February 2008 and is valid for a five year period. CZM solicits potential priority projects every year in response to a NOAA Federal Funding Opportunity Notice, ranks these projects according to the priorities identified in the plan, and then nominates the state’s highest ranked projects to NOAA for CELCP funding. In Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2007 the DCR in partnership with the Town of Plymouth was awarded approximately $2.25 million for the preservation of the Center Hill Beach Project in Plymouth, which included a 28-acre parcel along Cape Cod Bay including more than one-half mile of undeveloped beach shoreline, and also included a 50-acre match property located just inland. In FFY 2009 the DCR in partnership with Massachusetts Audubon, and the Town of Wareham, was awarded approximately $1.986 million for the purchase of a conservation easement on approximately 95 acres. Including the surrounding protected properties, more than 260 acres either are or will be protected, including more than one and a third miles of undeveloped shoreline along Buzzards Bay. For FFY 2010, CZM nominated two more projects seeking approximately $5.8 million in CELCP funding from NOAA.

In addition to buying coastal property, the state provides coastal access in other ways. For example, by regulating coastal development under the Public Waterfront Act (Chapter 91 of the General Laws), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) secures many public access benefits along the shoreline, particularly on filled areas within developed ports and harbors. DCR also has the authority to acquire public "strolling" rights along the water's edge of beaches and other appropriate sections of the coast, although only one such easement has been acquired to date. In 1999 CZM published a 200-page handbook to help community groups reclaim and protect their historic rights-of-way to the sea, such as municipal easements, public landings, footpaths, and trails. Finally, CZM operates a Coastal Access Small Grants Program, when funding is available from DCR, to support local and regional projects that improve and enhance the general public's recreational access to the coast. Principal categories of funding include: 1) establishing new public coastal access opportunities; 2) developing plans for design and management of public coastal properties; 3) reclaiming historical public ways to the sea; 4) enhancing or restoring existing access points and facilities; and 5) developing public coastal access educational initiatives.

In the near future, CZM expects to lay the groundwork for a Coastal Trails Initiative, by beginning a comprehensive survey in order to publish, on the CZM Web site, all trail maps and associated descriptive literature (including links to existing Web-based material) that provide "on-the-ground" identification of existing pedestrian trails at or near the Massachusetts shoreline. Among NGOs and municipalities there has been an explosion in trail-related initiatives over the last decade, and CZM sees a need to establish a statewide "clearinghouse" so the public can learn about the myriad places where coastwalking is already available. This data will also be integrated with existing information on publicly owned recreational properties from CZM's Register of Protected Coastal Accessways (see below), which in turn will be used to conduct an initial reconnaissance to identify potential new opportunities for new trail expansion/interconnection in the North Shore/Greater Boston area.

A dispute between the towns of Orleans and Chatham on Cape Cod has developed that affects both beach access and beach ecology. Historically the towns have had an agreement that allows access to Chatham's part of the beach, called North Beach, through Orleans' part of the beach, called Outer Beach. At the end of June 2006 Orleans officials closed all of their Nauset Beach access south of the parking lot for about a month to off-road vehicles to protect nesting piping plovers. That effectively closed the Chatham portion of the beach to all but boaters. Orleans selectmen and state officials have claimed that Chatham did not have plover monitors and did not post signs identifying habitat areas. Selectmen from the two towns were scheduled to meet in late September 2006 to try to resolve the issues.

Site Inventory

25% of the shoreline in Massachusetts is publicly owned, according to Pogue P. and Lee V., 1999, "Providing Public Access to the Shore: The Role of Coastal Zone Management Programs," Coastal Management 27:219-237. Public ownership includes town beaches and state beaches (mainly managed by the Department of Environmental Management and the Metropolitan District Commission). Privately owned beaches include those owned by non-governmental organizations such as the Duxbury Beach Association, Trustees of Reservations, and individual private property owners.

The document referenced above identifies 671 public access sites. This corresponds to about one public access site for every half mile of shoreline.

In 1990, the Department of Environmental Management (now Department of Conservation and Recreation) published a study on beach access, Massachusetts Coastal Land Inventory: Extent and Distribution of Publicly Owned Shoreline. The report used data from 1986 to 1987, so the report is somewhat dated. Access descriptions in regions and communities vary greatly in level of detail provided. Nonetheless, the conclusions from the report show that Massachusetts has a limited amount of public access.

The report states that Massachusetts has 1,342 miles of coastal frontage, which is all land 300 feet landward of the highest point the ocean can reach. Of the total coastal frontage, 363 miles are publicly owned, which is 27% of the total coastal land. This land is owned by a variety of entities including: federal, state, and local government, and nonprofit conservation organizations.

The Draft 2006 Massachusetts CZM Access Assessment and Strategy reports that publicly owned coastal frontage has increased since 1995 by an estimated 12 miles, to a total of approximately 375 miles. At last count there were 195 miles of state, county, and local parks (Massachusetts Coastal Land Inventory, DEM, 1990); 325 public beach access sites totaling 186.9 miles (Massachusetts Coastal Land Inventory, DEM, 1990); and 720 Rights-of-Way (Compilation of Public Rights of Way Leading to the Shore, Dept. of Public Works, Division of Waterways, 1963).

Massachusetts CZM has taken significant strides in increasing the amount of information available about publicly accessible beaches and other public recreational facilities in the Commonwealth since 2000. A revised edition of The Massachusetts Coast Guide to Boston and the North Shore was published in 2004. The Coast Guide identifies hundreds of diverse coastal areas that are open to the public. The coastline offers much more than large public beaches on hot summer days. This guide shows the location of many smaller, more intimate areas that are not so well known. It acquaints the reader with less familiar coastal landscapes by showing the way to rocky shores, secluded coves, tidal creeks, marshes, estuaries, and islands (some of which can be visited only by boat). In addition, boat ramps, piers, trails, visitor centers, restrooms, and dozens of other facilities and amenities are noted. The detailed maps show the different coastal access areas and the roads to take to find them. Although brief, the site descriptions give a sense of what you will find when at each site. To get a free copy, e-mail your address to czm@state.ma.us.

An online version of The Coast Guide is now available! This version covers Plum Island & Vicinity, North Gloucester, Boston Inner Harbor and Dorchester Bay-Quincy.

CZM has completed a statewide inventory of all publicly accessible waterfront properties owned by government agencies and non-profit land conservation organizations. This information is now available online. The Online Locator of Coastal Public Access Sites (Access Locator), developed in coordination with MassGIS, displays maps and site-specific information — a useful tool for prospective visitors to the Massachusetts coastline. Along the Coastline Drive that roughly parallels 1,500 miles of spectacular ocean shoreline, the public has access to over 1,000 beaches, parks, conservation areas, and ways to the sea. The Access Locator will help you find these varied places and discover what each has to offer, ranging from the well-publicized expanses of National Seashore down to the smallest footpaths and landings that only the locals know. An exciting new feature is that the Access Locator now provides "coastwalking" information in the form of downloadable trail maps and associated descriptive material published by the government and non-governmental organization (NGO) owners of sites containing any kind of footpaths. Such information rarely stays in print very long due to limited funding, especially in the case of municipalities and small land trusts, so posting it on the internet provides recreational visitors to the shoreline with a valuable service. CZM welcomes your comments and suggestions at czm@state.ma.us.

According to the CZM 2006 Access Assessment, Massachusetts CZM has also taken strides in developing the State Register of Protected Coastal Accessways to keep track of all shoreline access entitlements that have been secured for the public as a result of municipal initiatives, as well as the regulation and acquisition programs of several state agencies. The process of building the Register database began in 1995 with the completion of an inventory of all publicly accessible coastal properties owned by federal, state, and local governments and by non-profit concervation organizations from Newburyport to Hull. During 2005, fieldwork to collect information on such public access sites along the remainder of the coast was completed, and CZM has worked with staff from the MassGIS Program to develop an On-line Locator of Coastal Public Access Sites. The Register now includes Chapter 91 license access conditions and public easements across private property. The data is available to the public through the Online Locator of Coastal Public Access Sites. The Register will have significant value in coastal land acquisition planning and in resolving disputes about public versus private ownership of coastal properties. This data is also expected to be published in CD-ROM format as part of the Massachusetts Ocean Resource Information System (MORIS).

The MassGIS Web site has a December 1995 Public Access Board layer. This point layer identifies 164 of what appear to be coastal and inland water boat and canoe launch sites. The principal source for this layer has been Public Access to the Waters of Massachusetts published by the Public Access Board (PAB) of the Department of Fish and Game (DFG). Additional sites have been digitized from USGS topographic quadrangles. http://www.state.ma.us/mgis/pab.htm

PAB's Public Access to the Waters of Massachusetts is a full-color publication that includes 90 individual site maps and descriptions of more than 200 access points to state waterways. The 150-page guide also includes information about sportfishing piers, fishing in fresh and marine waters, boating law, rights of access, and information about boating and fishing programs in DFG. http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/pab/pabbook.htm

A complete listing of all beaches in Massachusetts can be found here.

You can get to Lighthouse Beach near the Chatham Lighthouse, but you can't go in the water. In a decision that ran counter to years of work by selectmen and the recreation commission, the Chatham board of health voted 4-0 in January 2009 to close the popular beach to all swimming, based on safety concerns because of swift currents and sharp drop-offs. The town must decide how to patrol the beach to keep beach-goers out of the water. Whatever beach patrol plan is decided will go before a town meeting in May 2009.

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation has a very nice parks site that lets you search by name, region, recreation, and activity, etc.
http://www.state.ma.us/dem/recreate/camping.htm

Freshwater and saltwater beaches are listed on the Department of Conservation and Recreation's Web site at http://www.mass.gov/dcr/universal_access/a-swim.htm

MassParks
Department of Conservation and Recreation
251 Causeway Street, Suite 600
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: (617) 626-1250

Beach Attendance Records

The most recent quantitative data indicating demand for coastal access in the Commonwealth is contained in a 2000 study commissioned for the State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). Survey results showed that "coastal beaches and shoreline" continued to be the most popular recreational resources in the state, visited at a median rate of 12 times per year by an estimated 61 percent of state residents, with even higher participation levels (70-83%) in evidence in the easterly regions of the state. Overall, visitation is projected to be 111 million person-trips per year, with the average one-way distance traveled being approximately 45 miles. At nearly twice the distance typically traveled to any other type of recreation area (except for more distant mountains), this datum is clearly indicative of the continuing strong desire among state residents to engage in shoreline recreation.

Economic Evaluation of Beaches

A three-part study An Assessment of the Coastal and Marine Economies in Massachusetts, produced by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), provides an analysis of the economic value of coastal and marine economy output as well as an overview of employment, wages, business activities and trends within important sectors of the Massachusetts marine economy for 2004 (latest available data). UMass completed this report under contract with CZM as part of the Ocean Management Initiative.

The UMass team used a standard, widely-used economic model called IMPLAN for the bulk of the analysis. The Final Report also includes information from a business owner survey and provides recommendations of next steps for further study. Links to the project scopes of work and each section of the three-part study are provided below.

Scope of Work

Telephone Survey of Business Owners Scope of Work

Overall Project Scope of Work

Final Report

Report I - An Assessment of the Coastal and Marine Economies of Massachusetts

Report II - Next Steps for Further Study of the Coastal and Marine Economies of Massachusetts

Report III - Data Tables

Some of the study's key findings related to coastal tourism and recreation were as follows:

The Coastal Tourism and Recreation sector in the coastal zone directly employs 119,420 persons.
Within the sector, 73 percent of employment (87,499 jobs) is related to food services, 15 percent (18,296 jobs) is related to accommodations, and 11 percent (13,625 jobs) is related to entertainment and recreation.
Payroll within the sector totals $2.3 billion annually, with average annual wages of $19,580 per employee.
Secondary employment impacts of the sector create over 38,011 additional jobs within the region, an employment multiplier of 1.32.
Annual production output (2004) totals about $8.7 billion including about $3.6 billion in secondary impacts.

Also, the draft Baseline Assessment of the Massachusetts Ocean Planning Area has an Economic Valuation chapter where it is stated:

"The [coastal] tourism and recreation sector employed 125,800 individuals in 2006. [...] Altogether, $14.2 billion were generated in this sector in 2006, an increase of 8.6% over 2005. [...] Activities associated with this sector include recreational boating, saltwater angling, wildlife watching, and beach visits. At least 20% of visitors to Massachusetts visit Cape Cod and the Islands, the second most visited destination after Boston. Cape Cod has many coastal resources that make it attractive to visitors, mainly its beaches and bays. The main activities in which Massachusetts residents participate are swimming (44%), coastal viewing (34%), boating (19%), and diving (3%)."
A somewhat dated (perhaps 10 years old) State of the Coasts report by Coast Alliance, indicated that coastal industries contribute $70.7 billion to the economy of Massachusetts.

Overall state tourism spending in 2004 was $12.46 billion, supporting 125,300 jobs. (Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism)

NOAA's Coastal Services Center (CSC) has written a discussion of the recreational value of beaches, in the context of beach fill projects. In 2009 CSC released Introduction to Economics for Coastal Managers, a basic introduction to economic ideas and methods that can be applied to coastal resource management. The economic concepts provided in this introduction are illustrated through several case studies. Both of these documents are part of a series of coastal and ocean economics publications developed by CSC on the use of social science tools for coastal management. The following ominous note appeared on the NOEP Web site in early 2010: "Lack of funds forces NOEP to suspend all further updates. The NOEP Website will go dark June 1, 2010 unless new funding sources can be secured."

The following two Web sites provide information on the economic value of coasts and the ocean throughout the country.

National Ocean Economics Program

Non-Market Valuation Web site

State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies - 2009

Restore America's Estuaries

The Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries: What’s At Stake?

Perception of Supply and Demand

According to the CZM Draft 2006 Access Assessment, both the 2000 and 1995 SCORP surveys revealed that Massachusetts residents are not satisfied with existing opportunities for coastal recreation. Approximately one-third of the respondents pointed to a need for additional beach/shoreline facilities, consistent with the high need indicated generally for water-based facilities and for swimming areas in particular (the single most needed type of facility statewide).

The most pervasive impediment to providing adequate access to the shoreline is the fact that a large percentage of the Massachusetts coast is privately owned. Acquisition efforts that increased the amount of publicly owned or accessible coastline by nearly 100 miles in the 1970s and 1980s have declined due to skyrocketing land costs and a scarcity of undeveloped coastal properties. In the last decade state environmental agencies have completed 36 coastal acquisitions that have brought roughly 2500 acres into public ownership. Fewer than half (15) of these acquisitions were conducted between 1995 and 1999. It is important to note that the number of coastal acres acquired in the last decade include a variety of habitat types including a significant amount of salt marsh. Therefore, they do not necessarily all contribute to an increase in shorefront miles available for public access.

Public Education Program

To help people understand coastal issues, as well as the impact their individual actions have on the health of our coast, CZM maintains a public education and information program. Through this program, CZM produces a variety of brochures, guidebooks, maps, and other materials to help inform and educate the public on issues that affect the coast. For example, CZM produces Coastlines, an annual magazine on coastal issues, and includes a calendar of coastal events. In addition, CZM produces CZ-Mail, a monthly electronic newsletter, which is maintained electronically at http://www.mass.gov/czm/czmail/currentczmail.htm

CZM also sponsors COASTSWEEP, the statewide beach cleanup that thousands of people participate in each September. CZM also holds workshops on a variety of coastal management topics. CZM's public outreach efforts are supported by the entire staff and are led by specialists in communications, public information, and graphic arts.

CZM's Web site provides a nice summary of Public Rights Along the Shoreline. It also includes a page of links to outside resources, including coastal and marine educational resources at:
http://www.mass.gov/czm/links.htm.

Contact Info

Andrea Cooper
Shoreline Floodplain Management Coordinator
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (617) 626-1222

Brad Washburn
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management

David Janik
Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program Contact
Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
(508)291-3625 x20

Carole McCauley
Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management

Dennis Ducsik
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management

Rebecca Haney
Coastal Geologist and Hazards Coordinator
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
(617) 626-1200

Stephen McKenna
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management

John Weber
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management

Bruce Carlisle
Assistant Director
Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management
(617) 626-1205