The Herring River Restoration in Wellfleet, in the works for years, seems headed for its first town meeting airing.
By removing a 1909 dike, the project would restore natural tidal flow to one of the largest wetlands in New England. To proponents of the project—and to judge from public comment it has few opponents– the dike was a mistake, a misguided early effort to attract tourists by reducing mosquitoes. The driving idea behind the restoration is to correct that mistake.
Removing the dike—by stages– will make large areas of town a lot wetter. Roads will need to be raised, some holes of the golf course reconfigured, numerous private abutters satisfied. But the benefits, we are told, will be many: it will restore the ecological health of the estuary, make it a more effective buffer against rising seas of climate change, improve shellfishing, and probably reduce the mosquito population.
Until recently it seemed that this major reshaping of our town might be accomplished without ever being debated or voted on by citizens.
Now it will apparently end up in town meeting after all, in the form of consideration of a petitioned article instructing selectmen to save High Toss Road. High Toss (name of uncertain origin) is a traditional sand road skirting the edge of and then heading across the former Herring River tidal plain, which now has a lot of trees growing in it. It is a road beloved of an undetermined number of citizens who use it for walking, jogging, riding horses, or access by car to put kayaks in the Herring River. Its fate has been one of the few controversies raised by the restoration project.
This road was used for generations, tides permitting, before the offending 1909 dike was installed. Until recently it has seemed that the idea of maintaining the road’s pre-dike, tides-permitting usefulness was consistent with the goals of restoration. But now it’s looking like it may have to go.
Restoring the free flow of tides would require removing the existing built-up road to marsh level. Because of subsidence of the marsh over the last 100-plus years, the road would have higher tides over it than before 1909 and the bridge needed to get over the Herring River itself might get dangerously slippery (for horses and people) from the frequent immersion. A bridge would be expensive to build and maintain.
Further, it’s pointed out that, unlike pre-1909, there is now another, paved road for reaching the far side of the Herring River tidal plain.
But at least the 11 people whose signatures are on the petitioned article are not ready to abandon High Toss.
Who knows what percentage of citizens ever use High Toss for recreational or any other purpose? Hearings on the fate of the road have been attended by a passionate but small minority of High Toss aficionados. At town meeting we may find out how the rest of town feels.
It is not clear whether the selectmen have the legal authority to abandon a town way. But even if they do, should they?
Not according to the citizen who posted this on Wellfleet Community Space on facebook: .”Can someone please explain why this project, in its entirety, is not being voted by the residents at Town Meeting? It seems like something of this magnitude, that affects so many people’s private property and lifestyle, should not be decided by five people.”
The petitioned article will bring the Herring River restoration project to town meeting. But there’s a problem with the article as written. It asks that High Toss “continue to be open to pedestrian, equine, bicycle and light vehicle and not impeded upon by barriers or tides.” This wording seems to ask for the existing road and usage to remain intact, thus ignoring the restoration goals entirely, as well as the discussion in hearings to date. Revising it to ask that High Toss be maintained in its pre-dike form would make for a more useful town meeting discussion.
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