CHATHAM – An overflow, standing room only crowd turned out on Saturday morning at the community center to heard what the future holds for the town's changing shoreline. Sponsored by the Chatham Alliance for Preservation and Conservation, a panel of four local coastal experts examined the subtle and often dramatic changes to Chatham’s dynamic 60 miles of shoreline. Chatham is on the leading edge of dram...

CHATHAM — Thanks to the whims of Chatham's shifting sands, boaters can now quickly travel between Nantucket Sound and the Atlantic for the first time in more than 25 years. But particularly for people in smaller boats, exploring the east side waters means taking extra safety precautions. Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith and other experts spoke to a large crowd of recreational boaters Saturday, updating them...

CHATHAM – A 108-foot revetment proposed to protect a $3 million Shore Road home should be denied because it does not meet performance standards in state wetlands laws, according to a ruling issued last week. Presiding Officer Jane A. Rothchild recommended the upholding of a state department of environmental protection order denying the revetment, which overturned the conservation commission's approval of the stru...

Inlet In South Beach Could Prove Troublesome For Fishing Fleet CHATHAM – For the past few months, shellfisherman Randy Saul has been watching a washover on South Beach, about a half mile south of Lighthouse Beach. He knew there was deep water on the ocean side of the narrowing neck of sand as well as on the west side, in the old Southway. It was only a matter of time before the ocean broke through the low, n...

CHATHAM -- Saturday's northeast winds and high tides scoured out a previous washover in South Beach about a quarter mile from Chatham Lighthouse, creating an inlet through which several vessels traveled Sunday. Water was flowing at low tide through the inlet, located approximately across from Outermost Harbor.  It empties into the waterways previously known as the Southway, which was the principle Chatham Harb...

CHATHAM – A decision is expected at the end of this week on whether a Shore Road property can be protected by a rock revetment, a project first approved by the conservation commission in 2014. Approval of a 108-foot revetment at James and Lisa McGonigle's 498 Shore Rd. property was appealed by both the state department of environmental protection and a group of 10 local residents, who claimed the approval viol...

 Strong Winds, High Seas Batter Lower Cape      CHATHAM — Though barely a flake of snow fell, Tuesday's strong storm downed scores of limbs and trees and tore up east-facing portions of the shoreline with high surf.  The afternoon high tide inundated low-lying coastal areas, flooded portions of Old Wharf Road in North Chatham and splashed over Route 28 in East Harwich and South Orleans. Winds...

CHATHAM – “Things have changed quite dramatically recently.” That was how Dr. Robert Duncanson, the town's natural resources department director, described the recent impact of storms on South Beach to the board of selectmen last week. The beach is “very narrow” and there were multiple overwashes of its southern section, he said. An area just south of Lighthouse Beach is very narrow and could break through....

CHATHAM – Recent winter storms have sent waves crashing over low sections of South Beach, and in one particular location created a washover that officials say could lead to a new break in the barrier beach. Much of South Beach south of Lighthouse Beach is little more than strips of sand barely above high water. One spot about a half mile down the beach where the higher dunes give way to low, flat sand, just pa...

CHATHAM – On Jan. 2, 1987, Cape Cod was engulfed in a fierce northeaster. Winds gusted to 68 miles per hour, driving an eight- to 12-foot storm surge, adding to tides already unusually high due to a full moon and a rare celestial alignment called syzygy. When the afternoon high tides sent waves crashing over a narrow section of North Beach opposite Chatham Light, few anticipated that the impact of the “breakth...

Time-lapse images taken over a 30-year period by Landsat satellites, compiled by Google and released by Time Magazine, include a 10-second glimpse of three decades of evolution of Chatham's barrier beaches.  Chatham is among dozens of locations across the globe highlighted in the video, which was initially put together by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey and then cleaned up and assembled into one video monta...

Time-lapse images taken over a 30-year period by Landsat satellites, compiled by Google and released by Time Magazine, include a 10-second glimpse of three decades of evolution of Chatham's barrier beaches.  Chatham is among dozens of locations across the globe highlighted in the video, which was initially put together by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey and then cleaned up and assembled into one video monta...

CHATHAM – A Sears Road couple has sued the conservation commission over its denial of a request to build a 192-foot revetment to protect their $3 million home on the Oyster River. The commission denied the revetment in June, stating that owners Richard and Sandra MacDonald of Dover failed to show that there is no other way to protect the 4,800-square-foot home on the property from storm damage. The house, buil...

The upper portion of the new stairway to the beach at the end of Water Street is in place, with the lower level soon to follow. Funded by a combination of community preservation money and donations from the Old Village Association, the stairs will restore traditional access to the beach at the Chatham Harbor end of the town landing. According to Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon, the bottom section is currently...