... to all that were offended by my rant and the firestorm it touched off. HOWEVER, I think something very positive came from the raising of a few hackles- a discussion of the need to take care of what we treasure. I frequently haul trash off of beaches from the Hill to Quonny, from Charleston to PJ and the cliffs of Gansett. My kids are often with me and are learning stewardship of the resource. Let's educate those that do make the messes and even enlist their help in cleaning up, as DZ has done. The RI shore is too special a place to lose it due to the carelessness of a few others. WE ARE THE MASTERS OF OUR OWN FATE and must take responsibility for the resources we all value. Anyone want to drink some good beer and pick up trash this weekend?

In my eught years living on the cape, I was denied access for the first time EVER last night. A great spot that has an association neighborhood owning the parking area has HIRED special detail police offercers to monitor the area and ask those without the sticker to leave...This particular officer actually walked, uniform and all down the beach a quarter mile or so... and told us of the deal. The association pays 36 an hour x8 hours per night=288x 3nights per week=864.

864 dollars a week... because of trash, kids, noise, etc. all of which when you are of money, you don't have to put up with.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THE PROBLEMS OCCURRING ON THE BEACH LIKE TRASH ETC. HAS CLOSED ACCESS.

I totally agree, trash and slobs = no fishing signs. I always bring out others peoples trash if I have a free hand.

$864 a week to keep away undesirables is cheap.....It's not about trash or too many people - it's about exclusion. They could hire a landscaper to clean the place up for $125 week. The Asian guy with the bait box is nothing more than a handy scapegoat.

People see litter on a beach and automatically blame fishermen - a lot of what washes up has come off the sides of pleasure boats, or is refuse from the commercial fishing industry, or transient flotsam. Recreational fishing litter while unsightly, is low-impact. We have a right to access the water and that right should not be dependent on the behavior of society at large.

I agree Joe, trash does wash up onto the shore and it sure does look like fishermen's trash, even though most of it isn't. Let's also agree that those people I carelessly made scapegoats could reduce their impact with a little help from those of us who are concerned about losing access to the shore. People have spoken of making up signs and fliers that could inform our peers of the effects of leaving a mess behind. DZ hands out bags and talks to folks on the rocks. RISAA conducts beach clean ups each spring. I hit a number of SoCo beaches each spring with trash bags in hand to cart off the winter's flotsam, practically none of which was dropped into the drink by fishermen. All of these acts make a positive impact, but more could still be done to preserve access to our shores. This summer I will make it a personal goal to carry trash bags with me everytime I fish, both to collect debris and to share with others. Hell, I'll even tie the bag to the fence for whomever is fishing the rocks at the Hill. Goal number 2- talk to my peers and impress upon them the importance of caring for the areas we fish. If each of us took a few extra minutes each time out, we would make a big impact on the quality of the resource, and make it that much more certain that we don't get shut out of the places we hope to share with our children and grandchildren.

Somebody hires a bulldozer to level a lot and two years later tries to run out the fishermen because they are disrespectful of the enviornment.

When I was fishing a certain beach in Portsmouth that I once lived next to on a regular basis I found the ethnicity of the morons leaving garbage to be quite diverse.I usually packed out a contractors sized bag worth of garbage a week.I always found it amazing that even when a half dozen garbage cans are available and you HAVE to walk by them to get back to your car that people will still elect to leave their garbage on the shore.

Now that I'm living in Tiverton I fish this beach much less.While fishing there last week the amount of garbage while not staggering was much more than I've ever seen.And with so many areas that have been lost to development on the West side there are many more people fishing this beach.Now whether or not its the fisherman leaving the garbage,it won't matter to the town of Portsmouth.The town will make the assumption that the increased amount of fisherman=increased amount of garbage.

Every time I fish I bring a plastic grocery bag with me and pick up as much trash that will fit in it.More times than not that means I can't get all of it,but if all who fished did this we'd have one beautifully clean shoreline.