Lower Cape Towns Working on Inter-Municipal Shoreline Management Plan

PROVINCETOWN – An inter-municipal shoreline management plan is being developed by the towns of Wellfleet, Eastham, Truro, and Provincetown.

The agreement is being developed with $115,000 from the Massachusetts Coastal Resilience Grant Program and will help the region reduce damages from sea level rise.

Conservation agents are seeking to develop a plan due to the erosion of beaches and surrounding areas caused by flooding from coastal storms.

“It’s going to help us to implement policy and manage our beaches in a way that assist other towns and we are also going to put together all of our collective expertise in how we approach shoreline management with all the ongoing coastal erosion and issues we are having,” said Eastham Conservation Agent Shana Brogan.

“We are going to be able to adapt and build a more resilient coastal shoreline for the future.”

Officials want to create an approach to conserving and managing the shoreline with the goal of ‘coastal resiliency through consistency and cooperation.’

“It’s extremely important that we have a consistent approach because we have one consist shoreline,” said Brogan.

“This plan is looking at 35 miles of shoreline along Cape Cod Bay.”  

The Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown will gather information on the shoreline from Rock Harbor in Eastham to Race Point in Provincetown and will factor in variables such as human uses and alterations, natural resources, obstructions, and rates of shoreline change.

Information about jetties, harbors, structures, and shoreline vulnerabilities will also be collected.

The center will then evaluate each town’s approach to shoreline management based on the information collected, with the goal of developing a plan that considers each town’s strengths and weaknesses.

Conservation and health agents from each town will meet regularly to discuss the plan and will hold a public information session sometime in the early spring.

Wellfleet’s health and conservation agent, Hillary Greenberg-Lemos, will lead the project that requires each town to contribute a $2,500 cash match throughout the process.

When complete, the project could provide the blueprint for the four towns to develop a regional approach to combat climate change.

A memorandum of agreement among the towns, along with a final report, will be completed by the end of June.

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