Hi Bob, I posted this link a while ago, it since has had the benefit of having comments posted as well. This is a NPS website, so that should be taken into account when reading the body, as well as the comments some of which I suspect are/were made by 'shack' dwellers, former and current owners and others. The dune shacks in the Province Lands area, and for that matter the Camps they owned in Chatham present an enigma to agency that is not used to managing property and park boundaries that has dwellings on it.

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2009/...tional-seashore4729

I agree that Dr. French quote, does show just how distant they are from the true heart of the matter. The unfettered and often unmanaged groups of day trippers wreck havoc far more that Camp owners.

My only point on the PP annual census reports is that they would either buttress Dr. French arguments or refute them in their entirety.

Bob I also enjoyed your earlier comments about the way things were pre 1987, and certainly pre 2007. The best one heard in passing at the Chatham Lighthouse parking lot was, "…that from here you can see Nantucket just the edge mind you, but those house over there are on Nantucket." as the older gentlemen sweeps his arm towards second village.

I'm not familiar with Superintendent Price's position regarding the Peaked Hills dune shacks, but I can say that he has been quite cooperative and supportive of the efforts to save the first village camps for as long as possible, the proposed moving of the inside trail on the Chatham section of North Beach, and even efforts to resume orv use on South Beach.

As for plover habitat and reports, that's something that will get hashed out through the appeal process, I'm sure.

This quote amuses me,however: The presence of the cottage, as well as the accompanying human activity, would create “physical, visual, and noise disturbance sufficient to inhibit plovers from using an area substantially greater than the actual ‘footprint’ of the cottage.”

Do they really think that a family using a camp is going to cause more of a disturbance than the hundreds of people that come over by private boat or shuttle service on a nice sunny summer day?

I didn't see any mention of the required annual Piping Plover report, that documents the number of, locations of, and success rate of nesting pairs. That report would clearly document if any PP nested in that area, last year or the years before. If they did what the success rate was, and how many nests were there.

More overly conservative speculation from Patrick's administration. And as for Superintendent Price's comment, taken from the fellow that wants to wipe out the dune shacks in the Peaked Hills area well I didn't expect much support anyway.

Its November and Piping Plovers are still causing trouble. I wonder just how much longer Dr. Thomas French, assistant director of the division of fisheries and wildlife and his minions (Scott Melvin et. al.) are going to hold sway over property rights?

Plover Habitat Nixes Plan To Relocate North Beach Camp
Families Will Probably Appeal State Decision

by Tim Wood

            CHATHAM --- Plans to relocate a North Beach camp to land at the southern end of North Beach Island have run into a mighty, albeit tiny, roadblock: the piping plover.

            The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife has ruled that the proposal by the Coppedge and Fuller families will cause short and long-term adverse effects on plover habitat and therefore cannot be allowed under the state’s wetland regulations and the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. The piping plover is listed as a threatened species in Massachusetts and is also federally protected.

            However, based on a consultant’s opinion after viewing the site Monday, the camp owners will probably appeal the decision, according to their attorney, William F. Riley.

        Consultant Dr. Robert Kennedy, director of natural sciences at the Nantucket-based Maria Mitchell Association, was “pretty firm” in his opinion that the spot where the camp is proposed to be located is not piping plover habitat at this time, Riley said.

            “Some day in the future, when it’s exposed to washovers, which we think it going to be 20 years from now, it would be,” Riley said. He expects to file an appeal when Kennedy provides a written report in about a week.

            Meanwhile, the Coppedge-Fuller camp remains in storage at Ryder’s Cove Boatyard, where it was moved in June after an early summer northeaster washed over the southern tip of North Beach and knocked it off the cribbing on which it was resting. The storm led to the demolition of three other camps, leaving only one remaining out of the 12 that made up the First Village prior to the formation of the new inlet in 2007. That camp, owned by William Hammatt, was lost in a storm two weeks ago.

            The Oct. 23 letter from Dr. Thomas French, assistant director of the division of fisheries and wildlife, stated that the project will alter actual habitat of the piping plover and result in a “take,” meaning that the tiny shorebirds would either be killed or prevented from nesting in the area due to the activity.

            “The sparsely vegetated areas at and immediately adjacent to the site where the cottage would be placed constitute suitable nesting, breeding, foraging, and chick-rearing habitat,” French wrote. The presence of the cottage, as well as the accompanying human activity, would create “physical, visual, and noise disturbance sufficient to inhibit plovers from using an area substantially greater than the actual ‘footprint’ of the cottage.”

            The determination is a “final decision,” French write, and can only be appealed to an adjudicatory hearing.

            Riley said the area where the families want to move the camp --- currently owned by Joshua Nickerson --- is at elevation 10, the highest on that section of the beach. The area is heavily vegetated, not the sandy coastal beach and dune environment plovers prefer. That might change if the area is overwashed, but that may be some years in the future.

            In their application to the conservation commission, the Coppedge and Fuller families described both how the camp will be moved to the island and how it will be removed.

            “When this area becomes subject to overwash, the building will be removed,” Riley said. “Their hope is that they would get about 20 years out of it.”

            The conservation commission continued the hearing on the proposal until Nov. 10, according to Conservation Agent Kristin Andres. The commission also agreed to hold off on spending any of the $4,000 the Coppedge and Fuller families were asked to post so the town could hire its own consultant. Andres went along on the visit to the island Monday, as did the commission’s consultant, Brian Madden, a senior wildlife scientist with LEC Environmental Consultants of Bourne. The commission will cover the cost of the consultant for the time being, she said.

            Cape Cod National Seashore Superintendent George E. Price Jr. also expressed concerns about the proposal. In a letter to the commission, he said the seashore did not object to camps being moved within their immediate neighborhood, because the sites were already developed and there were emergency situations. However, moving a camp to an undeveloped parcel in a totally different area of the new island, that will probably be subject to the same emergency conditions someday, is “problematic.”

OH A good rule of thumb is to choose a doctor who has done a lot of fishing. I always go to Mayo Johnson Chief of Surgery at Beverly Hospital. As a kid I watched him hone his technique filleting flounders on Pleasant and fishing under the strict eye of Harry Hunt! Good Luck!!

Edited by author 11-05-2009 10:25 AM
Yes you'll do just fine OH. The new drugs are quite nice and will give you a good rest! Very poetic Bob. Our new poster must be "Eau d'eau," Essence of water, or what the frenchman said when he first saw the outer beach, "Oh de water!"

BTW, NMTR. Today's 1:34 5.4 tide will be the highest of this set. Still expecting 30 mph winds on Friday.

Good luck Hannah. I had my first surgery this year. Pre-op stuff is no big deal. You'll do fine.

As far as not using the beach as much, it is sad. I used to go down at least once a week year 'round. I'm ashamed to say I can count on one hand how many times I've driven down since low beach closed in the spring. Now that I can't get to the camp by vehicle anymore, I just don't take the time. At least my jeep won't rust out quite as fast now. I hose off after every beach ride but parts are still seized up when I work on it.

I had to get a rear window for a truck on the island a couple weeks ago. I went by the local body shop to source a used one. The guy I spoke to is an old beach user that used to go religiously for many years. He stopped going in the mid 80's before the '87 break. It was nice to share some old memories.

I sometimes forget that most of the people using the beach now don't even know there was a whole village of camps east of the south village and that the beach used to run all the way down past mainland Chatham.

I sometimes sit at the lighthouse parking lot and listen to the people who think they know what they're talking about explain to others what they're looking at. Most don't have a clue. I'm happy to educate them if they ask, but most often I just sit, smile, and enjoy my memories of what used to be.

Old Hannah...Pr 21:9

Best fortunes Old Hannah.

Hey Guys
Wish me luck. Have to go up to CC hospital right now to get some pre op tests and I am a wicked sissy about such as never had to do it before.
Anyway, send good thoughts that they don't kill me!
I HATE HOSPITALS!!
OH

Edited by author 11-05-2009 07:59 AM
Those powers that be think the beach is only about summer.
Just a few have ever been out there!
Imagine that and they make all these not very thought out rules!
They haven't got a clue!
Thankfully if you need air you can go up to Bill's!
It is a sad reminder that so many that used to do the beach, don't.
Bill used to a lot.. Now he is up in Maine...
You know it seems more of us are moving away... : (

Good morning Tom.....Do you think the powers that be shut it down because its needed to inflate egos elsewhere in town?

Note: air station at booth shut down for the season..don't forget your air tank..

Enjoyed hearing about what was going on out the beach.
As for the surfers not needing to air down, well they are just TOO KOOL!
Remember how WE WERE? Hehehhehehehhee
SO CW you go hunting out there for ducks?
Good!
DO you have a dog/dogs?
I am going back to the shucking shack and get me some more scallops. A LOT MORE!
I may even buy them whole and just shuck away this weekend.
WOW are they good!
Odo, you are interesting!
So we will have you through November, huh?
Maybe you could marry someone here and STAY! ; )
Old Hannah

From your beach reports, it seems like the high tide conditions I can see at the tip of N/B are a pretty good indicator of what the beachfront is like. High tides througout the bay will get markedly higher after January.

OH and others all scallop lovers, Tim Woods has a great story about the start scallop season, filed 11/5. (Tomorrow's news today!)

Chatham Bay Scallop Haul Best In Decades

by Tim Wood

            CHATHAM --- After meager harvests most of the past two decades, local fishermen finally have a substantial scallop crop to boost their fall incomes.

            “Everybody was very happy” after the first day of commercial scalloping on Monday, according to Shellfish Constable Stuart Moore. The season actually opened on Nov. 1, but commercial scalloping is not allowed on Sundays.

More at http://www.capecodchronicle.com/