Barrier islands are temporary. All the beaches along the New Jersey shore are
as well. What Mother Nature giveth,
Mother Nature also taketh away.
Is it just me, or does it seem like a stupid, wasteful idea
to dump sand on beaches to replace the sand that gets washed away by every big
storm? And at taxpayer expense?
Talk about insanity.
Maybe I’d think differently if I owned beachfront property. Or
maybe I would have thought about that before I bought or built a place where there’s
a history of beach erosion.
I guess what’s most troubling to me is that we are picking
up the tab repeatedly to indulge some communities’ desire to have nice beaches
to support their local businesses. If it’s
that important to their local businesses, don’t you think those businesses
should pick up the tab? Why are Federal and state funds paying for this?
Beach erosion happens naturally. Without government intervention some beaches
lose their sand; other beaches get that sand.
So some beaches lose, while others win.
Artificially shuffling sand from one beach to another at the cost of
millions every time is just crazy.
If that’s not enough, there are also beach communities that
file lawsuits to prevent Federal and state efforts like building dunes to
lessen erosion – not because these would be wasteful, which they would – but because
some property owners’ ocean views would be compromised.
This is crazy squared.
I feel the same about people who build on barrier islands anywhere
along the Atlantic or Gulf Coast, and especially those who choose to live below
sea level – like parts of New Orleans – and those who expect us to pay for
their decision to live near a river that often floods. Mother Nature will eventually win. Thinking you’ll somehow be spared is
stupid.
If you’re smart enough to have earned the money to build a
million-dollar property right on the shoreline or next to that scenic river,
then you should be smart enough to understand that you’re not really an owner,
but merely a renter. Eventually the
forces that created that land will take it away. It’s just what happens over time.
And I don’t care if a property has been in your family for
years or even generations and is now under siege by rising tides, land
subsidence, or some other natural phenomenon, it’s time to move on, or triple
down on your insurance. You’ll need it.
There’s a great Michener book all about the Chesapeake Bay
area. Near the end there’s a prophetic passage
about a barrier island central to much of the book.
It was vanishing; being eaten away by the never-ending tides.
If someone wants to indulge their fantasy of living right on
the beach or on the banks of the Chesapeake, more power to them. It’s their money.
But when things turn out badly – as they inevitably will in
time – don’t look to the rest of us to make you whole again and save your
investment. If you need to pour in more
sand to replenish your beach, or build jetties or bulkheads to stem erosion,
that should be on you.
The same goes for boardwalks, popular at the Jersey
Shore. If the business interests in your
town rely on boardwalk traffic for a living, and the boardwalk gets destroyed,
let them pay for restoring it and leave the rest of us out of it.
The argument is always that it will hurt the local economy if
the beach is not restored, or the boardwalk’s not rebuilt, or whatever. And the cost is far too great for the local community
alone to fix. They need Federal and
state dollars to get them back on their feet.
My question is why.
If every few years Mother Nature takes away part of your beach or
destroys your boardwalk, aren’t you getting the message?
You’re not supposed to be there.
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