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NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 22,
2025 | |
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Beaches
Belong to Everyone
In
California, where I live, we tend to take beach
access for granted. Under state law, beaches in
the Golden State are truly open to the public,
and the California Coastal Commission makes sure
they stay that way. We can thank prescient
advocates who, in the face of rising coastal
development, fought to establish the commission
back in the 1970s.
Not
all of America’s beaches, however, are so
accessible. Earlier this summer, I spent time on
the Connecticut coast visiting family. When I
say “on the coast,” I mean it — we were steps
from the ocean. It was beautiful.
But
that shore was not shared by all. As we arrived
at the small Madison enclave we’d be staying in
for the week, we were greeted by a “Private
Property, No Public Beach Access” sign. The
beach, it was clear, was for those in the
homeowners’ association only. Similar signs, I
soon realized, decorated every nearby
neighborhood and driveway along the water. After
a bit of research, I learned that Connecticut’s
beaches were legally public up to the mean
high-tide line. But unlike in California, access
was another matter entirely.
Connecticut
is hardly alone when it comes to limited coastal
access. Though US beaches fall under the public
trust doctrine, meaning we all have a right to
enjoy them, only a handful of states have strong
coastal access protections like California.
Public access is poorly protected along 90 percent of
the US coastline and Great Lakes. (And it’s not
as if the rich in
California don’t try to cordon off the
public from beaches as well, laws be
damned.)
My
family and I enjoyed our days playing in the
sand and swimming in the Long Island Sound. But
the inequity of the situation was inescapable
and uncomfortable. It was yet another example of
what Hannah Palmer dug into in our summer cover
story — how systemic racism and economic
inequity continue to limit many Americans’
access to swimmable waters in the United
States.
Beaches
belong to everyone. It’s beyond time we honored
that. | |
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Zoe
Loftus-Farren
Managing Editor, Earth
Island Journal
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Nearly
50 years after their reintroduction, Scotland
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When
an ancient, dying oak in Portland, Oregon, was
deemed dangerous and set to be removed, people
across the city came together to celebrate the
end of its life. Our columnist Tove Danovich
wishes we had more such memorials for
neighborhood trees and shrubs that usually
vanish
quietly. | |
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Podcast
On
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Verde, Zoe Loftus-Farren speaks
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Means, co-founder of Strange
Exchange SF,
and Danielle Grant, programs director
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SF,
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both human rights and the local environment. We
so hope that court ruling on the matter
holds. (Mother
Jones) | |
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From: Editors,
Earth Island Journal <edi...@earthisland.org>Date: сб, 23
авг. 2025 г., 2:45 Subject: Beaches Belong to
Everyone | |
