MDE ignores bike/ped again
Pursuant to the Living Shorelines Protection Act, MDE has prepared rules on where and how one can build erosion-control structures. Those structures often eliminate the public pathway along the shore (all land below mean high water is owned by the public so unless it is high tide, you can walk or ride a fat-tire bike along the shore). Some of the environmentally friendly techniques (planting marsh) also impair access along shores that were previously pebble and sand beached. In some states, to get a permit, property owners must create pathways inland of the shore protection--but these rules are silent entirely on public access. As written, MDE can allow property owners to eliminate public access along shores that people currently use to go somewhere.