CRMC’s Potter Pond shell game of last minute Hail Mary’s ignores the will of so many opponents of losing more open water to private business. We have been telling this tale for almost six years and we’re all just as frustrated as when this was proposed without notice to anyone on the pond.
Deep in the brush, enveloped in protective poison ivy, slowing water, amassing mud, encouraging alders to set roots in a stream, a tired wall has prohibited trout passage for nearly one hundred years. Then, Trout Unlimited, RIDEM and Protect RI Brook Trout grabbed loppers and sledgehammers and tore that wall down. The improvement was immediate and frankly, really wonderful.
Boats blocking public access are just as egregious as wealthy weekenders guarding “their” piece of a beach. With this crush of tourism in many coastal communities, people’s laziness or belief their seasonal residence affords them a pass to year round laws, can block others from accessing water. Please, take your boats home.
The RI Coastal Advocacy Coalition has delivered a letter to CRMC looking for regulatory change in the way it considers approving and siting shellfish businesses in public trust waters. With summer a wrap, Todd Treonze has been awarded the OSKAA Angler of the Year. Dennis Zambrotta has some sage advice for surfcasting Block Island and RISAA’s Greg Vespe pulled a bomber bonito out of chilly November waters.
When government doesn’t engage the very people who might be impacted by their tax funded actions, there will be opposition and just maybe, anarchy. Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Management Council has invited even more scrutiny by softballing aquaculture applications literally under people’s noses, without ever letting them know of the impacts. That’s pure bull and the curtain has been called.
