Vineyard residents feud over island's ancient pathways

Amanda Tate walked a Great Dane down Pennywise Path in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard yesterday. (Vincent DeWitt for the Boston Globe)


Vineyard residents feud over island's ancient pathways
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | October 14, 2007

EDGARTOWN - Some maps of Martha's Vineyard simply omit them. But the old cart paths are there, fanning out through the woods between the paved grids and cul-de-sacs of modern subdivisions, like a spider's web of sandy trails knitting together dense neighborhoods.

Not quite private and not exactly public, the oldest thoroughfares on this island date back centuries, to the European settlers who came here 400 years ago. The history of some trails goes back further, to the native people who first trod the Vineyard's piney interior.

Some islanders say these ancient ways are at risk of disappearing, as development of the Vineyard pushes inland. But their recent effort to protect several old roads has angered one island family, whose members say they are being singled out for persecution.

The conflict reflects the changing face of Martha's Vineyard and other rural enclaves, where expanding populations have placed pressure on traditional landscapes. The cart paths are vulnerable landmarks, in the eyes of some of their advocates, because they skirt some of the last open space - and available real estate - on the island.

"We're losing the ancient ways because of development, so we want to preserve the ones we have left," said William "Boo" Bassett, chairman of the committee that oversees Edgartown's 25 ancient ways.

This month, at the urging of concerned residents, the Martha's Vineyard Commission, which plans use of the island's land, voted to include five of the paths in a special planning district, to prevent them from being paved, widened, or cleared of trees while regulations for their use are drafted. The new rules, which must be approved by a two-thirds majority of voters at Town Meeting, would establish 20-foot protected zones on each side of the paths.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/14/vineyard_residents_feud_over_islands_ancient_pathways/

I think other places are also. The rich buy up ocean fronts and want to keep other from getting to beaches also. Proust Neck , I think, did some work on this under a well known artist and his land and how he wished it to be used. Having grown up on water front land I know the problems first hand and recall my father trying to keep his land his land and not opened to any one that wished to cross it. Between high tide and low was open land by the way but how to get to it seems to be the problem in many places. I can recall our trips out to paint signs on the rocks even when people just came and used the land as if it was their own. My father would call police when these people would take over our packing places. It was hard to park in your own yard so he had the cars hauled away aND THE POLICE ALWAYS DID IT FOR HIM. Course that was people wanting to get to public lands by the use of private property that had never been used for just people packing on it. It is an interesting subject to me any how. Some lakes in NH have sort of done the same thing and the general public just can not get to them. In Maine I think if the state stocks the lake their must be a public way to it. I frankly think the water front should be open to the general public in some easy way to get to it. The rich hardly own the water front even if they wish to.