Edgartown challenging new shorebird protection guidelines

Select board to support beach access group’s effort in removing Norton Point’s 150-foot shorebird buffer from beach management plan.

A local nonprofit organization dedicated to responsible public beach access has received support from the Edgartown select board in protesting the state’s updated shorebird protection plan for Norton Point Beach.

The board agreed to send a letter to state regulators opposing a 50-yard buffer zone to protect the habitats of piping plovers and terns, but which has also restricted vehicle access.

The roughly two-mile barrier beach connecting Chappaquiddick to Edgartown came under management of Edgartown’s parks department earlier this year, after being stewarded by The Trustees of Reservations for almost two decades.

The town’s takeover of Norton Point required navigation of state and federal red tape — an approval of its proposed beach management plan, along with determinations on conditions for public over-sand vehicle (OSV) access.

To allow OSV access on Norton Point, Edgartown parks needed approval from the National Heritage and Endangered Species Program of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, which ensures protection of endangered and protected species.

The town received the official greenlight in May.

But with that approval came a newly added policy regarding shorebird protection, put in place by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, that restricts OSVs from coming within 150 feet of nesting shorebirds on Norton Point.

On Monday, Peter Sliwkowski, president of MV Beachgoers Access Group (MVBAG) told Edgartown select board members that the new buffer not only impedes public beach access, but it also indicates an “overreach” by the state as it’s inconsistent with the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife 1993 shorebird protection guidelines on OSVs.

Those guidelines were developed to assist Massachusetts beach managers and property owners to avoid potential violations of the Endangered Species Act regulations. Since introduced, the document has served as criterion for reviewing notices of intent (NOI) that include vehicle beach access.

Per the guidelines, which Sliwkowski noted has served as the “gold standard” for shorebird management throughout the Commonwealth for the last three decades, there are no references to a 50-yard buffer for vehicles.

Sliwkowski said that MVBAG leadership believes the new required buffer between nesting shorebirds and OSVs, was not only a misinterpretation of the state’s own regulations, but, according to the organization’s legal team, is “just wrong.”

The buffer mandate is “arbitrarily imposed by the Division [of Fisheries and Wildlife] without going through any of the regulatory processes,” Sliwkowski said, adding that if the state were to adopt a new standard or revision to the 1993 guidelines, it ought to be “well-reasoned and involve multiple stakeholders and should include a public notice and comment period.”

As the owner of Larry’s Tackle Shop, Sliwkowski said he’s engaged with individuals that had participated in public meetings in the early 90’s regarding the OSV regulation section of the 1993 guidelines who had relayed the need for public input and a separate section devoted to vehicle access.

Today, imposing such a buffer “will have a significant, wide-ranging future effect on restricting OSV beach access,” he said, adding that MVBAG representatives are calling for the condition to be removed from the town’s Norton Point beach plan.

At Monday’s select board meeting, and in addition to already working with local and state government reps regarding the new policy, the nonprofit asked the town of Edgartown to sign a letter in support of their mission which will be forwarded to Mass Wildlife.

“I’m in support of what you want to do,” select board chair Arthur Smadbeck said, before making a motion in support of drafting their own letter on behalf of the town. The board also agreed to be a “signatory to whatever else might be necessary.”

The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.