To the Editor:

Our ocean, and its coast, is one of the greatest gifts we have as Rhode Islanders. Access is a privilege for all and limiting that access is not only wrong, it's unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, confusion over the exact boundary between private property and the public shore has led to individuals being harassed for exercising their rights to the shore. Those engaged in constitutionally-protected activities along the shore should be protected.

Your constitutional right to access, and move along the shoreline, is currently being debated by the Rhode Island General Assembly. It’s essential that your legislators hear from you.

The public's use of the shoreline – an area above the visible high tide line – has been an integral part of life around Narragansett Bay long before the state of Rhode Island, as we know it, existed. The state constitution preserves the “privileges of the shore” for all Rhode Islanders, “…including, but not limited to, fishing from the shore, the gathering of seaweed, leaving the shore to swim in the sea, and passage along the shore." 

However, a decades-old court decision continues to cause confusion among both the public and coastal property owners about where, exactly, the public can exercise their shoreline rights.

A recent legislative study commission was formed to examine this problem. After hearing from historians, legal experts and coastal scientists, the commission concluded that the General Assembly should clarify that the public's shoreline access rights extend 10 feet landward of the visible high tide line (but below the vegetation line or sea walls.)

Our right to use dry sand above the high tide line has existed throughout our history, and the General Assembly has the authority and the responsibility to set the record straight.

Please ask your legislators to protect shoreline access and support H 8055 today: https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/SaveTheBay/Campaigns/93348/Respond

Lynn O'Malley

Cranston