The Commission finds that regulations applicable to activities involving
coastal beaches and tidal flats are necessary and proper for the following
reasons: Coastal beaches and tidal flats aid in storm damage prevention,
erosion and flood control; serve as a source of sediment for downdrift
coastal resource areas; serve to provide wildlife habitat to rare,
endangered, and otherwise significant wildlife; serve to protect and
provide habitat for marine fisheries and shellfish; and serve to provide
important wetland scenic views and recreation. Coastal beaches dissipate
wave energy by their gentle slope, their permeability, and their granular
nature, which permit changes in beach form in response to changes
in wave conditions. Coastal beaches serve as a sediment source for
dunes and subtidal areas. Steep storm waves cause beach sediment to
move offshore, resulting in a gentler beach slope and greater energy
dissipation. Less steep waves cause an onshore return of beach sediment,
where it will be available to provide protection against future storm
waves. A coastal beach at any point serves as a sediment source for
coastal areas downdrift from that point. The oblique approach of waves
moves beach sediment alongshore in the general direction of wave action.
Thus, the coastal beach is a body of sediment which is moving along
the shore. Coastal beaches serve the purpose of storm damage prevention,
erosion control, and flood control by dissipating wave energy, by
reducing the height of storm waves, and by providing sediment to supply
other coastal features, including coastal dunes, land under the ocean,
and other coastal beaches. Interruptions of these natural processes
by man-made structures and/or activities reduce the ability of the
coastal beach to perform these functions. Tidal flats are important
to the protection of marine fisheries because they provide habitats
for marine organisms, such as polychaete worms and mollusks, which
in turn are food sources for fish. Tidal flats are also sites where
organic and inorganic materials are entrapped and then returned to
the photosynthetic zone of the water column to support algae and other
primary producers of the marine food web. Coastal beaches and flats
serve as important habitats for a wide variety of wildlife, including
but not limited to coastal birds, turtles, shellfish and finfish.
In particular, they are used by coastal birds for feeding areas and
nesting sites. The natural erosional and depositional cycles, sediment
grain size, water quality (including but not limited to turbidity,
temperature, nutrients, pollutants, salinity, and dissolved oxygen)
and circulation, and elevation of the land surface are all features
of wildlife habitat which are critical characteristics for the protection
of wildlife. Characteristics of coastal beaches and flats which are
critical to the protection of marine fisheries, and shellfish and
their habitat include: distribution of sediment grain size, movement
of sediment, water quality (including the characteristics given above)
and circulation, and beach relief and elevation. Characteristics of
coastal beaches and flats which are critical to storm damage prevention,
erosion control, or flood control include sediment volume and form,
their ability to respond to wave action, natural erosional and depositional
cycles, and wave intensities. Characteristics of coastal beaches and
flats which are critical to recreation are topography, sediment grain
size, water quality (including the characteristics given above), water
circulation rates and patterns, unobstructed access along shore, natural
erosional and depositional cycles, and wave intensity. Characteristics
of coastal beaches which are critical to wetland scenic views are
natural erosion and deposition cycles, relief and elevation, sense
of openness, and solitude. Land within 100 feet of a coastal beach
or tidal flat is considered to be important to the protection and
maintenance of coastal beaches and tidal flats, and therefore to the
protection of the wetland values which these areas contain.