Featured Story

Featured Letter: It’s time we clean up our beaches

beach

To the editor:

Fifteen years ago, my husband and I discovered Baiting Hollow and its bluffed sound beaches through a rental. Several years later we decided to invest in the area by buying a home in Baiting Hollow, including beach steps to a deeded beach as part of our lovely community.

Over the years, the situation with our Sound beaches has gotten worse and worse, largely because cars and recreational vehicles are allowed on the beach, even during the summer months. The ruts and tire tracks make it impossible to find a flat bit of sand to place a towel on and prohibit beach walks. Our dunes are compromised by the shifting sand distributions. The peaks and valleys in the sand create small rivers when tides shift, which become breeding grounds for flies and mosquitoes. Trash piles up, including used needles and condoms. And most of all, the sanctity of our North Fork beauty is being threatened — which becomes antithetical to all other efforts to beautify Riverhead and thus attract visitors and future residents.

Our beaches have become an embarrassment. What gives? Isn’t it time for a change? Shouldn’t we be protecting our dunes and our beaches, allowing residents the beach experience they are entitled to? I say yes.

Wendy Bernstein, Baiting Hollow

Photo caption: Tracks from vehicles on the beach are a common sight. (Credit: Wendy Bernstein)