Expand Beach Access for ALL, MA!

UPDATE, JUNE 2023

An Act Relative to recreation on private tidelands (H.795/S.462) was refiled without changes at the start of the 2023-24 legislative session by Rep. Fernandes and Sen. Cyr. These bills are currently awaiting a hearing before the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (date TBD).

In the meantime, volunteers from the MA Chapter have continued their outreach and education on the issue of coastal access in the Bay State by reaching out to the general public and other ocean stakeholder groups. In addition, the landing page on the chapter website for this campaign has been updated with new content and links to tools for asking your legislators to cosponsor this bill before It comes up for a hearing.

If you have questions about this bill and beach access in MA, or want to join this campaign, please contact us!

UPDATE, JUNE 2022

While we were successful at driving the conversation about the need to improve public beach access in Massachusetts, unfortunately, this bill was retained for further study by the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee. This means the bill is on the back burner and likely to die this session.

That said, the fight is far from over!

We will pick this issue back up next session and keep trying until the public's rights of access to the ocean, waves, and beaches is clarified to explicitly include recreation. 

UPDATE, FEBRUARY 2022

The Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee filed for an extension on the deadline to move this bill out of Committee, after what is known as the “Joint Rule 10” date having passed. This is the date by when all bills that have come to public hearing but have not yet moved out of Committee with a recommendation for passage (or not) to be “reported out.” All bills not accepted for extension of the deadline or reported out by Joint Rule 10 day, die.

The reporting date for this bill was requested to be extended to Thursday May 12, 2022, and as of the writing of this update, is pending concurrence.

In the meantime, check out this Boston Globe OpEd, penned by our Surfrider Foundation Massachusetts Chapter volunteer campaigns coordinator, Alex Vai!

As always, please give a shout to engage in this or other campaigns in Massachusetts: ma@surfrider.org.

UPDATE, DECEMBER 2021

The bill came to public hearing on December 14, 2021. We will update this campaign page when the committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture makes a decision on the next steps for the legislation.

Thanks to all who testified in support!

ISSUE

Massachusetts has some of the oldest and most restrictive beach access laws in the entire country. Stemming from the ‘Colonial Ordinances of 1641-1647’, current state law and interpretation of rights in the Public Trust generally prohibits the public from access any private beach above the average low tide mark without permission from the landowner. In contrast, most other coastal states significantly restrict the ability of private property owners to restrict public access by providing for ample public access below the average high tide mark.

Present state law does interpret the standard iteration of the Public Trust to reserve a public right of access across private tidelands for three specific purposes and three purposes alone: fishing, fowling, and navigation.

This is why ‘An Act Relative to Recreation in Private Tidelands’ (HD.3191/SD.1381), filed in the 2021-2022 MA Legislative Session, is so important. The bill aims to improve public access to the coast for ALL people by explicitly adding ‘recreation’ to the list of allowed public use of private tidelands.

If passed, the bill would define private tidelands as:

“Private tidelands”, tidelands held by a private party subject to an easement of the public for the purposes of recreation and navigation and free fishing and fowling and of passing freely over and through the water.”

The bill would further define ‘recreation’ as:

“Recreation”, the use of land for relaxation, exercise, watersports, or other enjoyable pastimes.

Please stay tuned for more information and reach out to campaigns@ma.surfrider.org to engage directly in our work to support this bill.