Oak Bluffs beaches are the town’s most valuable recreational and economic asset. At town meeting voters will be asked to fund a $40,000 beach rake, by petitioned article, to maintain the downtown beaches.

The purchase and use of a beach rake is more complicated than it may seem.

The cost for use of a beach rake is greater than $40,000. If it is approved, the highway department will have to purchase machinery to pull the rake and also maintain, man and store the rake and additional machinery.

The parks department manages the beaches. Its budget is miniscule. The sum of $40,000 would go a long way toward helping manage the beaches, including staff to collect litter and additional lifeguards. Adequate funding for the parks department should be a priority.

A conservation commission permit is required for use of a beach rake. The Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act does not allow activity on a beach that causes erosion. Raking material off the beach hastens erosion. Rocks, shells and seaweed are as much a part of a healthy beach system as tiny grains of sand. In fact, they help keep the finer sand from eroding.

Thus is it unlikely the commission will allow the removal of rocks from the beaches. No Cape Cod towns are allowed to remove rocks. Some Cape towns use beach rakes to remove litter and seaweed, but litter and excessive seaweed can be removed by hand.

The beaches are eroding. They need to be routinely renourished, not raked away.

In 2010, the downtown beaches were nourished with 10,000 cubic yards of sand from Sengekontacket Pond. In 2012 Hurricane Sandy washed away 20,000 cubic yards. This is the problem — more frequent storms causing more erosion, sea level rise, and a lack of natural sediment to replace the eroded material. The only practical solution for preserving the beaches is to regularly dredge the pond and put the sand back on the beach where much of it came from. To then rake material off the beach is counterproductive.

There is a more constructive solution to preserving and maintaining the beaches: • Town leaders commit to major and consistent funding for routine pond dredging and beach nourishment. • The parks department and conservation commission, with public input, develop a beach management plan for all the beaches. The parks department would need to receive adequate funding to implement the plan. The plan would need to

specify how to keep the beaches clean, how to sift foreign debris from the dredge material, how to provide quality beach access, sufficient lifeguards, and so on. And finally, the plan would need to meet wetlands protection regulations.

Funding and thoughtful planning are the keys to protecting the town beaches. Wind and waves reinvent the beaches every day. Beach raking is an attempt to manicure this inherently untamed buffer between the land and sea. The natural functions of the shoreline need to be preserved in order to protect the beaches’ recreational and economic values.

Liz Durkee

Oak Bluffs

The writer is the Oak Bluffs conservation agent.