Orleans Watchdog
Kent's Point:
Deception
Proposal to impose a year-round sticker at Kent’s Point...
The environmental expert’s report didn’t recommend access restrictions
The environmental report of LEC Consultants, which was delivered on February 21, 2025, contained a number of recommendations to the Town, which may be found at pages 18-22. They are screen-shotted below, with my comments regarding the measures which are and aren’t being implemented. The key takeaway, though, is that these recommendations in no way suggest restrictions at the parking lot. Rather, those restrictions were suggested by the petition which kicked the legislative process off in January of 2024. Relatedly, as early as February or March of 2024, Select Board member Andrea Reed told me that “we’re going for parking stickers,” to reassure me that this wasn’t an attempt to enact a leash law (actually, it turned out to be that as well, but that’s a separate part of the story). So, Town government has had that goal from the beginning, and is now continuing to go for it in spite of the fact that the expert’s report they spent $15,000 to receive doesn’t support it.
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The following pages are from the Kent’s Point Conservation Area Environmental Assessment, February 21, 2025.
Regarding Pages 18-19 (above):
The habitat protection recommendations are about keeping people out of certain sensitive areas, by means of split-rail fencing and small signs affixed thereon. There has been lots of follow-through here.
The signage and education recommendations, which are obvious, in my judgment, and supported by expert literature in the field, are being completely ignored. People clearly have to be alerted at the front that the area is delicate. We in Orleans know that, but people from Manhattan generally have no idea. A sign at the bottom of the cliff would be good as well: not long ago a friend of mine from Chatham stopped a man who had parked his kayak there and was heading up with a shovel to look for Native American artifacts.
Drainage and runoff is where Town government is failing spectacularly and offensively, in spite of having known about water diversion needs for years if not decades. I have a separate page devoted to erosion. Take a look. I think you’ll be shocked.
Regarding Page 20 (above):
Also shocking is the extent to which trail safety is being ignored. There are adults walking at Kent’s with babies on their chests. Look what they’re having to navigate, with diminished immediate frontal visibility because of the baby:
I have many similar pictures. Tripping hazards like this are everywhere, and there is no warning signage at the front. Is that okay? I don’t think so. As a footnote, I’ll just mention that based on my casual research, a settlement for lifelong injuries to an infant often runs in the 30 to 40 million dollar range.
Action or the lack thereof on invasive species management isn’t an issue that has really flashed on my radar screen, so I won’t comment about it.
Regarding Page 21 (above):
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Here as well, this stuff hasn’t flashed on my radar screen much, except for one obvious branch interfering with a great view which ought to have been dealt with by now because it’s so simple.
Regarding Page 22 (above):
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Okay. Nothing much there. But did you see anything about access restrictions? A Select Board member said to me recently that “there’s a belief among members of the OCC that the expert’s report supports access restrictions.” Really? All I can say is, “then they haven’t read it.” Or maybe, “it doesn’t matter what it says, because a majority of them are just proxies for the Select Board, pretending to deliberate while doing what the Select Board wants.” Does anyone really believe that this would be happening now, given that they have been considering it since 2015, if the Select Board hadn’t counted solid votes on the OCC beforehand? We're in "keep pushing ahead regardless" mode here, and the effect of that is to perpetrate a fraud on Orleans citizens – by making them think that the motives for this are environmental, as opposed to parochial ("Orleans First," the law be damned) and tribal (anything for the Keziah's homeowners and finally putting those dog owners in their place).
A QUICK LOOK AT A POTENTIAL NEW ENVIRONMENTAL ARGUMENT
Before we move on, I just want to address a new argument I think I see popping up: Sometimes people will drop a poop bag and forget to pick it up on the way out. This happens more often when there are more outsiders, including some who don't realize at first that they aren't necessarily going to come back by the same trail. This is a danger to foxes, who eat the plastic bags. Therefore we should exclude outsiders.
On its face, this makes a little bit of sense. However, leaving aside the fact that exclusion is illegal, it ignores other solutions:
(1) The expert's report advocated, as I have for many years, for signage at the front alerting people to the fact that the area is fragile and that certain behaviors are important. Despite that recommendation and expert literature demonstrating that well-executed signage can effectvely guide behavior in conservation areas, a Select Board member recently scoffed to me that "I don't think signs are going to do anything." I was a bit shocked. I thought we had a commitment to decisions being data-driven.
(2) A few months back, I sent an email to the Conservation Commission, offering to donate a wooden container down near the little boardwalk or the picnic table that would have a barrel in it for bags. The dog walkers would take responsibility for switching out the liners. This wouldn't eliminate all dropped bags, but it would help, by making disposal more convenient. As is true of every bit of correspondence I have ever sent the Town save one, this one was utterly ignored. Perhaps there is a lack-of-effort problem there, or perhaps it didn't fit the Town's narrative of dog walkers being a cancer on the land, I don't know,. In any event, it illustrates the near impossibility of cooperation with the Town.
(3) Finally, the fact that a bag is left by one person does not mean that it will stay there. Many of us pick up stray bags. One friend recently told me that she does it often enough that her son thought it was her job. Moreover, we are totally willing to get organized about making sure there are late-afternoon stray-bag sweeps. We care. We are environmentalists. We're willing to take input and deal with problems effectively. It's sad that in. this climate where the Keziah's homeowners' association keeps using Town government to attack us, the problem is going to be channeled into breaking up our community, rather than coming to us as a request for attention to the issue.
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All right. Now let's explore how the proposed nonresident restrictions are doubly unconstitutional: