File:Coast watch (1979) (20660436935).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_12 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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LEGAL TIDES
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26 AUTUMN 1999 I T JLhe beach season is drawing to a close. Kids are back in school, and fewer cars packed with towels, sunscreen and plastic toys trek to the coast every weekend. But for the past few months, vacationers have crowded North Carolina's miles of public beaches. On Saturdays in July and August, the roads to the Outer Banks are clogged with traffic heading for the sandy shore. North Carolina vehicles jostle with cars from Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania. For many vacationers, this trip to the beach is a summertime ritual, whether it takes hours of driving or a quick walk across the street. The wide, sandy beaches draw surfers, sunbathers and fishers from across the state and around the country, and they are open to everyone. Traditionally, North Carolina has welcomed visitors to its shoreline. The Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA), which regulates coastal development, also provides a beach and waterfront access grant program for local governments. With funding from CAMA, seaside towns can buy coastal property and build public parking lots and walkways over the dunes. Some communi- ties also provide shower facilities and dressing rooms. Such Southern hospitality has made North Carolina's coast a hot summertime destination. But can visitors take public beach access for granted? Not necessarily, says Walter Clark, coastal law and policy specialist for North Carolina Sea Grant. The rising demand for recreational shoreline space is part of the problem. The right to cross the dunes and plant an umbrella in the sand has its roots in Roman law, which held the seashores to be publicly owned. Later, English common law took up the tradition, and the United States followed suit. Some states, like Virginia and Delaware, allow public use of the beach only below the low-tide line, functionally removing the entire beach from the public domain. Other states, like Hawaii and Oregon, have proclaimed the beach to be accessible to the public up to the first line of vegetation, usually at the edge of the dunes. Like many other states, North Carolina holds its coastline in public trust to the high- water line, which means that the wet-sand

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