Orleans Selectmen to Discuss Nauset Beach Erosion

Erosion at Nauset Beach Credit: U.S. Geological Survey Department of the Interior/USGS U.S. Geological Photo

Erosion at Nauset Beach
Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
Department of the Interior/USGS
U.S. Geological Photo

ORLEANS – A recent study of Nauset Beach by the Woods Hole Group shows the beach is eroding at an alarming rate.

The study, which was commissioned by the town, will be discussed by Natural Resources Director Nathan Sears at this week’s selectmen meeting.

“We are losing 10 to 12 feet of dune, roughly, a year,” Selectman John Hodgson said. “If you have been down there recently it’s amazing how much beach we have lost.”

According to the study, the beach was losing a few feet each year and since 1994 that number has increased to about a dozen feet.

“What I don’t want to see happen is what happened when the piping plovers came,” Hodgson said. “We just put the white flags up and said retreat.”

He said this issue needs to be different and action needs to be taken.

“We need to push whatever officials we need to push to be able to hold on to those dunes with whatever we have,” Hodgson said. “For the future we need to make better strides to: A. Plan for what’s going to happen; and B. Try to slow it down as much as possible.”

Hodgson said the beach is an economic driver for the entire town.

“This is the fuel for us in Orleans,” he said. “Our businesses run off of beaches. People spend a lot of money in our town to buy homes because we have these beaches.”

Steps have already begun to combat the issue.

“We bought the hotel property that’s just at the gatehouse there that we are going to turn into parking,” he said.

Hodgson said cottages that were there have been recently torn down and plans for the upcoming season call for an additional 300 parking spaces.

“Our goal for this coming season is that nobody that comes down that hill will be turned away,” he said. “Where in the past, the parking lot fills up and people go home.”

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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