A University of Rhode Island research group on the 2023 shoreline access law has begun meeting with focus groups to understand the public’s knowledge of coastal access and climate change.
The project, led by Assistant Professor Jesse Reiblich and co-principal investigators Melva Treviño Peña and Nathan Vinhateiro, began a year and a half ago. They are assessing the effectiveness of Rhode Island’s new shoreline access policies.
“From the legal standpoint, there was the purpose of determining whether this new shoreline access law is both legally sufficient to continue to be an adequate boundary in the face of rising sea levels and coastal erosion and more increased storms,” said Vinhateiro, who is also the science director of the Coastal Institute. “But also whether it provides really meaningful access to the coast, not just a legal right.”
The shoreline was now defined as 10 ft landward or above the visible high water line, according to the 2023 law passed by the state legislature.
“We proposed this project, because we felt like the change in the law made [it] a coastal resilience law, because the boundary between public trust and private land is now seen as a dynamic, shifting, moving boundary,” Vinhateiro said.
Vinhateiro said his role in the project comes from his background in climate change and coastal processes.
“I feel like we’re each meeting very different roles in the project,” Treviño said. “On my end, I’m a human geographer. My research is on relationships to the environment.”
Treviño said the project’s objectives also include determining barriers to access and who actually knows about the law’s changes.
“If there was more knowledge of what people can and can’t do, anyone can benefit as a member of the public,” Treviño said.
The 2023 law was designed to increase parallel access to the beach, not perpendicular, according to Treviño.
“You may have miles in either direction that you’re able to access,” Vinhateiro said on parallel expansion in the southern parts of Rhode Island. “When you’re further up into Narragansett Bay or some of the rocky coves, you’re not going to have that situation. You’re going to come down and you’re going to be limited in either way.”
The researchers’ work now involves figuring out what the physical barriers to beaches are and the knowledge barriers for getting residents to know about the law.
“Once they get there, can they park?” Treviño said “Are they going to be harassed by someone who lives nearby? How has the law changed people’s experiences with shoreline access in terms of people feeling more empowered to stand up for themselves?”
The project is funded through the National Sea Grant Law Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant program.
The community connection portion of the project comes from the data collection, according to Treviño. Last year, the principal investigators conducted one-on-one interviews with “ocean access advocates” in Rhode Island. Last month, they began focus groups with different non-scientist coastal users.
“There’s definitely a geographic divide between the people who are very active in this discourse and people who seem to be less aware,” Treviño said. “A lot of them live in Providence, and they seem to be less informed.”
Treviño’s work began with self-provisional fishers, who need to be out on the water for hours at a time. The fishers often try to access off-the-beaten-path locations for their personal fishing needs.
“It felt like an extension, a broadening of the work I was doing,” Treviño said. “They need to feel safe. They need to be welcomed or feel comfortable in a space.”
Treviño said that coastal access is a social and environmental justice issue, and that understanding Rhode Island’s law can allow all residents and members of the public to enjoy Rhode Island’s beaches.
“There’s this idea that the shore belongs to the elites and the wealthy,” Treviño said. “It is for all of us.”
