Mother Nature doesn't respect property lines. Winds, waves, tides, storms, and hurricanes can all change a state's coastline, which is often in constant flux either accreting or eroding.
In Texas, where many beaches are losing five to ten feet of sand each year, when erosion puts a house between the lowest waterline and the line where plants naturally take root, that house may interfere with the right of all Texans to access the beach.
In this edition of Coastal Services, we examine the Texas Open Beaches Act relocation expense reimbursement program, which tries to protect public use while being fair to private property owners who find themselves in this situation.
The questions Texas managers are working to address may be relevant to more and more states as our coastlines experience sea level rise and other impacts resulting from climate change.
Also featured in this edition are articles on Oregon's efforts to review and regulate the dismantling of retired military vessels to address community and environmental concerns, and the successful multiagency effort to move the shipping lanes running through Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts to help protect endangered whales—an effort that required international approval.
We also look at an award-winning website in Minnesota that is helping homeowners understand that what comes off their lawns impacts coastal waters, and suggests simple things people can do to help improve water quality. One of the things that makes this website stand out is its use of real-time stream monitoring data in almost every part of its message.
We hope that you find all these articles interesting and perhaps one or two of them a little intriguing. We are always open to your feedback and suggestions, so let us know what you like and don't like about this edition or the publication in general. We would also like to hear your thoughts and ideas for future articles.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
