. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. The erosion threat keeps federal, state and local managers searching for ways to save North Carolina's beaches. The state made one of its first moves in 1974 when it passed the Coastal Area Management Act. Since 1979, new houses built near the beach must meet stringent setback standards. Regulations require homeowners to build behind a line 30 times the annual erosion rate. For larger buildings, it's 60 times the rate. In addition, oceanfront property owners can no longer put up bulkheads, seawalls and rev
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. The erosion threat keeps federal, state and local managers searching for ways to save North Carolina's beaches. The state made one of its first moves in 1974 when it passed the Coastal Area Management Act. Since 1979, new houses built near the beach must meet stringent setback standards. Regulations require homeowners to build behind a line 30 times the annual erosion rate. For larger buildings, it's 60 times the rate. In addition, oceanfront property owners can no longer put up bulkheads, seawalls and revetments. Although these hardened structures sometimes help the immediate property, they often rob sand from the beaches on either side. It's already happened in New Jersey. Little to no beach remains in towns such as Cape May and Asbury Park that erected bulkheads. To help prevent such disasters, North Carolina aims its regulations at preserving beaches, not beach houses, says Dave Owens, director of the Division of Coastal Management. The ultimate goal is "not to do anything in the short- term that will affect the long-term public use of the beach," he adds. "In North Carolina, we have a tradition of high recreational use of our beaches," says Walter Clark, Sea Grant's coastal law specialist. "To allow this tradition to continue is to keep it in the public's ; The public owns the beach below the high-tide line in North Carolina. And in general, the dry sand beach above the line belongs to adjoining private property owners. As the beach erodes, the high-tide line moves in and owners lose some of their private property, Clark says. In places with severe erosion, houses actually may be trespassing on the public's beach. "The beach is always going to be there," Owens says. But the problem is the beach moves and development doesn't. So the conflict between migration of ownership and public right continues. And it intensifies with i
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