Massachusetts beach towns look to ease ‘overly strict’ conservation rules: ‘Common sense’

As certain shorebirds rebound in population along the Massachusetts coast, beach towns are pushing for the state to strike a healthier balance between conservation and recreation.

State Rep. Kenneth Sweezey, a South Shore Republican, is leading the charge on Beacon Hill, authoring legislation to untangle what he describes as “overly strict” regulations hindering his region’s access to its beaches.

Over the years, Duxbury Beach, in particular, has borne the brunt of protecting recovering bird species, including piping plovers and terns, limiting business and recreational opportunities at the prominent South Shore coastline.

The Duxbury Beach Reservation, a private landlord, has had to close certain roads and portions of the shoreline while birds are nesting. Residents and visitors are also required to have an oversand vehicle permit, which costs more than $150, for beach access.

Under one of Sweezey’s proposals, the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife would only restrict over-sand vehicle access or other recreational activities if the bird species is listed as endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Sweezey has said that piping plovers are the only species nesting on Duxbury Beach, which his district includes, that are federally endangered, while other birds carry a state designation.

“Birds may be federally protected because they’re doing poorly in one region of the nation, even though they may be thriving in the Commonwealth,” Sweezey said at the State House last week. “Those differences sort of create problems when you’re looking at human access, recreational opportunities on the beaches and conservation on the beach.”

Sweezey made his appeal to the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, touting shorebird management expert Chris Kennedy for helping him craft his proposals.

Kennedy, a wildlife biologist who has worked for the state Environmental Police and Division of Fisheries and Wildlife over the decades, is championing an equal balance between conservation and recreation.

In response to a post in the ‘Save Duxbury Beach’ Facebook page, Kennedy highlighted how the Bay State has seen a nearly “tenfold” jump in nesting plovers since 1986, going from 140 to over 1,200 last year. Roseate and common terns are also “strongly increasing,” while least terns are “slowly climbing.”

“Reasonable public access is not anti-birds,” Kennedy stated. “It is simply common sense.”

The 1,221 nesting pairs of plovers identified in 2025 marked a record high for the species’ population, up even from the 1,196 in 2024, numbers show.

According to the state’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Duxbury Beach had 149 days of recreational activity last year.

Sweezey is also calling state regulators to conduct a review of their recreational management guidelines that protect piping plovers, terns and their habitats across the state at least once every two years. Part of that process would include two public hearings.

Patrick Parquette, a government affairs officer for the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association, called the state’s current shorebird management program “long outdated,” having been adopted in 1993.

Parquette pointed out how, decades ago, nests of certain shorebirds needed to be a minimum of an eighth of a mile apart. Today, species, including the piping plover, are nesting within 100 feet of each other.

“At the time, it was based on the best thinking that we had,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a reasonable human being in this building, no matter the ilk or philosophy they come from, that would say that our knowledge base 33 years ago could compare with today’s knowledge base.”

Andrew Marshall, founder of the Save Duxbury Beach nonprofit advocacy group, centers his concerns around climate change and its effects on the Plymouth County town of roughly 16,000.

“We’re being unfairly punished due to climate change, with some of these southern birds moving up to the north here,” Marshall told lawmakers. “These birds aren’t rare or threatened. They’re just new in our area.”

A third piece of legislation that Sweezey has crafted would ban state regulators from prohibiting any beach management program from using all legally authorized shorebird nesting mitigation tools under the state’s habitat conservation plan.

Sweezey said a goal of the bill would be to promote parity among Massachusetts beaches.

“These bills,” the representative said, “are critically important to our environment, our coastal traditions and local economies down in Duxbury, but really along the entire coast.”