Portable Watercraft and Accabonac

The Accabonac Protection Committee counts among its members many individuals who enjoy kayaking, canoeing, and using other portable watercraft around Accabonac Harbor. The APC values such low-impact recreation as a responsible means of enjoying the beauty of our town waterways and takes pride in its achievements that have helped keep Accabonac accessible and pristine.

The APC for many years has been concerned that the growing number of portable watercraft stored overnight at Louse Point is negatively impacting not only the beauty of this area but also its fragile ecology—killing shore undergrowth, hampering efforts to re-establish beach-grass and other native species, and providing ideal habitat for mosquito breeding. The 2006 season proved worse than prior years, with over 130 kayaks and canoes and craft of all types left on the beach for much of August.

Urged to action in part by the APC, the town Trustees in 2007 initiated a permitting process for overnight storage of portable watercraft on the beach at Louse Point (also at Settlers’ Landing, Three Mile Harbor), limiting storage to the number of boats accommodated by a handful of 2-tier, split-rail racks erected for that purpose. To date, the Town Board has yet to enact companion legislation allowing impounding of craft out of compliance with the Trustees’ permitting process.

The APC applauds the initiative of the Trustees in taking action to address a growing problem, and it recognizes the ecological benefit of the smaller ‘footprint’ currently taken up at Louse Point by portable watercraft. As the 2007 season draws to a close, the APC continues to monitor the situation at Louse Point and elsewhere within Accabonac Harbor, and we intend to work further with the Town Trustees, the Nature Preserve Committee, and Town Board to effect a workable way to protect Accabonac Harbor while keeping it accessible. While remaining sympathetic to calls for convenient access to Accabonac for purposes of recreation via portable watercraft, particularly by local residents, the elderly and less-able, the APC enters all discussions on the Harbor under the fundamental premise that a policy of no overnight storage for portable, recreational boats is the best policy for Accabonac.