By Chris Krahforst, Director

Hull Climate Adaptation and Conservation Department

Summer is upon us and many of you may have noticed that the town-maintained pedestrian paths through the dune to Nantasket Beach are not maintained to a state of repair that is typical for this time of year.

Maintenance of these paths requires a Wetlands Protection Act (WPA) permit. This is because barrier beaches (which is what most of Hull is located on) include natural resources (specifically here are coastal dunes and a coastal beach) that have important and desirable public interests which the Act specifically protects.

**DUNE JUST FINE.** This image from the town’s 2020 assessment of dune crossings shows the different types that exist along Nantasket Beach.

For dunes these “interests” (that’s the word that the regulations use) are the protection they provide to residents who live in the floodplain; dunes provide storm damage protection (blocking the ocean from surging onto adjacent properties) and help to control flood waters from reaching the low-lying areas that are beyond the dune and further behind these immediate homes along Beach Avenue.

Further, these dunes and the beach also provide important habitat, particularly for the piping plover (PPL). PPL are listed as threatened on both the Massachusetts and federal endangered species lists and thus are afforded extra protection by law. Each year, the town contracts with Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program to help monitor PPL activity on the beach as a protective measure and as recommended by state guidelines in managing PPL on coastal beaches in Massachusetts.

However, the town’s WPA permit for path maintenance has expired. A new Notice of Intent for path maintenance was submitted in March by the Department of Public Works and is still currently before the conservation commission for permitting. This permit will require all path maintenance work to be completed before the official PPL season. As of to date, we are still in the process of meeting the requirements and answering concerns about this project with the Commonwealth’s Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP). (Sorry about all the acronyms!)

NHESP is concerned about the number of paths through this dune and the habitat fragmentation to which these paths contribute. As of 2020, there were 69 established crossings through the dune; 33 town-maintained paths are currently being considered for a WPA permit. These permits are good for three years and, after that period, may be extended for additional three-year periods upon request to the commission. It should be noted that DCR also must permit these types of activities on their portion of the beach. The agency currently has a valid WPA permit.

As you may be aware, we are well into PPL season (begins April 1 and extends to last day of August). Thus, even if there was an existing and valid WPA permit for the town to maintain these paths, we would be in the period now where no maintenance work would be performed; a condition that NHESP has required in the past, and most likely would include in this new permit.

For more information regarding this project please feel free to reach out to the Climate Adaptation & Conservation Department or listen in on the continued hearings on this matter before the conservation commission. We expect this matter to be continued to the June 25 conservation commission evening meeting. The commission’s agendas are posted in advance on the calendar page of the town’s website, www.town.hull.ma.us.

One last note, fireworks use by residents is illegal. Last year, there was a PPL taking cited by NHESP because of fireworks on North Nantasket Beach. A taking, under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act is defined as “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.” The Commonwealth is focusing on areas where fireworks are an issue for PPL in Massachusetts. Thus, the town is currently under a good deal of scrutiny because of this incident and the fireworks activity that occurs on Nantasket Beach.

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