Natural Environment 7.3: Recreation in Nature

Outdoor recreation is an integral part of Vineyard life.  The ability to stroll or cycle or fish is important anywhere, but the Vineyard’s natural beauty and evocative landscapes and vistas bring a special restorative quality to respite from the labors and cares of civilization.

Access to and enjoyment of natural areas provides community benefits beyond those to the individual; access inspires the culture of stewardship that is integral to the Island Plan.  The towns, Land Bank and various conservation groups have already created over 127 miles of trails.  Maintaining and enhancing the network of greenways is key. 

There is an intimate relationship between recreational needs and the divergent needs and offerings of natural and civilized areas.  There is a need to provide access to open space for people who reside in the midst of civilization, and particularly to do so without compelling them to get in their cars and drive to the open space.  Open space, however, is extremely limited in the midst of civilization.  Penetrating into civilized areas with greenways is a priority, and careful management of those areas will focus on keeping negative edge effects from penetrating the larger open space destinations.  Those greenway corridors should not funnel invasive plants and animals into the larger open space areas.   

Sometimes, public access is not compatible with habitat and groundwater protection, or with owners' wishes (with privately owned land that is under a conservation restriction).  Where there is access, there are often conflicts among the various users, or conflicts with management of the resources.  User fees may keep some areas inaccessible to those with lesser means.  Presently, there is public access to about 73% of conserved open space and 32% of the 211 mile shoreline of oceans and great ponds. Unfortunately, in spite of the apparent bounty, there is only limited access to much of the most desirable land and water areas, particularly at the shoreline.  Of the 38.8% of the outer coast that is public, 37.5% is open to the general public and 1.2% to town residents only.  Of the 47 miles of barrier beach (that is the wide, sandy beach that most think of for beach-going), 33 miles are private and 14 are public.

Linear shoreline is a finite resource with correspondingly high cost of acquisition. The regulatory climate in Massachusetts tends to favor the shoreline owners’ and waterways abutters’ rights over those of the general public. (In the 1630’s, Massachusetts adopted the Colonial Ordinances generously ceding public rights at the waterfront to promote development of wharves; now, Massachusetts is one of the two states where property in the intertidal area may be privately owned, while the public retains the rights of fishing, fowling and navigation there. Since the Vineyard only became part of Massachusetts in 1692, the possibility has been raised of reestablishing the same shoreline rights as New York State.)  There is also an effort underway at the Commonwealth level to redefine the activities attached to the public trust uses traditionally assigned to the public in the intertidal area, to include more modern beach uses.

While there has been some coast and beach acquisition for the public in recent years, there is a perceived reduction in the former free and easy access. However, there are also far more people  with correspondingly higher impact, so increased access must be balanced with careful stewardship.

Objective N3: Provide residents and visitors with access to the Vineyard’s beaches and shoreline – in a diverse array of settings – for fishing, shellfishing, walking, sitting, swimming and other recreational activities.

·  Strategy N3-1:  Set up an Access Revival Initiative to re-establish public access to beaches and shorelines. There may well be shoreline accesses with public rights that have been encroached or forgotten. Revitalizing these lost treasures could be an efficient means of enhancing shoreline access. This would involve: Methodically inventorying under-utilized shoreline access points.  Through appropriate legal mechanisms, determine the viability of dormant rights and accessibility. Collaborate to secure and manage these assets for better public use. Research Colonial Ordinances regarding ownership at the shoreline. Monitor and support Commonwealth efforts to redefine the uses retained by the public in intertidal areas.

·  Strategy N3-2:  Acquire new shoreline access:  Map existing access points and target access about every five miles (access to at least some areas should be by road, so that the elderly and immobile can reach the shore; should be legal public access). Use the Surfcasters Association’ identification to target spots, other than the every five miles, that would be particularly good to secure fishing access. In addition to mapping access, inform the public of hours and seasons of availability. Target the area on the north shore between Tashmoo and Menemsha inlets, where there is little public access.  Great ponds are underutilized public resource, in many cases because the abutting lands are privately held.  The ponds themselves (ponds greater than ten acres in size) belong to the public and should be available for recreation.  Secure access to great ponds, possibly utilizing Chapter 91 Section 18A to request a hearing on why access to a pond should be available.  (See also strategy N5-3 for waterfronts in town.)

Objective N4: Enable residents and visitors to enjoy a diverse experience of walking, cycling and horseback riding.

·  Strategy N4-1: Extend the greenway/trail network from Gay Head to Chappaquiddick with cross connections to the north and south shores.  The towns, Land Bank, and private conservation groups have been working for decades to create a network of trails allowing people to enjoy nature on foot, horseback, and in some cases, bicycle. It would be desirable that enough of these trails are located within broad open spaces – greenways – to allow people to enjoy a totally natural experience with little intrusion of developed areas. The eventual aim should be to create a continuous greenway/trail network, ribbons of open space, which extends from the Gay Head Cliffs to Cape Pogue, with cross branches in various locations. It is desirable that branches of this future greenway network come as close as possible to the centers of each of the town's built-up areas, so that the greatest number of people have access to the countryside as close to home as possible. These trails and greenways could be created using a combination of acquisition of properties and easements, and through the development permitting process as properties are developed. Designation of some routes as Special Ways, through the MVC’s Island Road District, can address issues of possible development that could impair access. Another method is to use a community-based outreach program to link trails, through a good neighbor policy, as is used by the Trails Committee of the Chappaquiddick Island Association.

·  StrategyN4-2: Encourage landowners to allow access for those who would use the land lightly and respect the property: Provide financial incentives that might be helpful for land-rich and cash-poor owners, such as the 90% reduction in assessed value that is granted on Cape Cod to owners who provide conservation easements with public access.  Address liability and damage issues through a risk management plan that could include an insurance pool.  Provide a package outlining liability issues and realities, for owners to use when considering providing access.

Objective N5: Provide access to public open spaces in village areas

In the rural parts of the Vineyard, there is considerable open space and most properties are large enough to provide plentiful outdoor recreational opportunities and access to nature. This is not necessarily the case in the non-rural part of the Vineyard (see Land Use Guidance Map), where there are people living in multi-family dwellings or on small lots in denser, village neighborhoods, as well as workers in business establishments, and visitors in hotels and inns.  The three largest town centers on the Vineyard were built on the water’s edge, but today there is limited public access to much of the waterfront.

·  Strategy N5-1: Ensure that there is a public open space within a half-mile walk from in-town neighborhoods. The aim is to give access to nature and recreational opportunities without the need to drive there. For areas that are deficient, it might be possible to provide access to private open spaces (such as parts of golf courses or private conservation lands), or to acquire open space.

·  Strategy N5-2: Bring the Island’s greenway network close to denser, village neighborhoods. Bringing greenways as close as possible to the centers of the three Down-Island towns would give easy access to the countryside to people living in the highest density population centers. This will be a challenge for the three Down-Island towns, but it appears to be achievable by using a combination of acquisition of some properties, and partial open space protection on others as they are developed. (The Martha's Vineyard Commission and Tisbury Planning Board are currently working on a prototype study of how this could work.) There should be trails from the neighborhoods to the gateway of the greenway in each town.

·  Strategy N5-3: Provide continuous waterfront access in the centers of the Down-Island towns: To reconnect Vineyarders to the sea, a high priority is to open up continuous waterfront access in the densest population centers of the Down-Island towns; namely the stretch of central waterfront that is not adjacent to single-family homes. Almost all the Oak Bluffs waterfront is public and Edgartown has been using its Harbor Plan to require additional sections to be opened.  Those waterfronts are faced with bulkheads and filled lands, where the public retains rights, no matter what is constructed there.  Because the Vineyard Haven waterfront is mostly open beach, access to that waterfront is intermittent. There, the aim is not to construct a formal boardwalk like those in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, but is simply to allow people to have access to and to walk along the waterfront among the existing buildings and uses. In spots where security or safety considerations make it impossible to have this access right along the water, there should be a clearly marked by-pass.