By Alex Nunes — Two lawsuits are challenging a law enacted in 2023 that sets a new definition for the public trust shoreline in Rhode Island

PODCAST By Colleen Cronin, Joanna Detz, and Rob Smith — Beach season may have ended, but conflicts over shoreline access have not. ecoRI News reporters Colleen Cronin and Rob Smith break down pending and settled lawsuits, and explain recent legislation that determines where the public beach begins and where private property ends.

By Nancy Lavin — The group of coastal taxpayers seeking to stop state agencies from enforcing the new shoreline access law has no grounds to sue.

By Brian Amaral — a lawsuit filed Friday by the Rhode Island Association of coastal taxpayers opens a new chapter in Rhode Island long-running fight over shore access

By Alex Nunes — A group of coastal landowners is asking a federal District Court judge to block enforcement of a new state law intended to clarify where beachgoers can be along the state’s shoreline.

By Rob Smith — The calls for reforming the state’s coastal management agency are growing stronger in the General Assembly. Last week, members of the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee heard a package of five bills to overhaul the Coastal Resources Management Council, the regulatory agency responsible for permitting offshore wind, aquaculture, and development along Rhode Island’s more than 400 miles of coastline.

By Alex Nunes — Expressing support for two bills under consideration by the General Assembly, Attorney General Peter Neronha told state lawmakers that the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council is “in desperate need of reform.”

By Alex Kuffner — Critics say that little has changed at the contentious state agency that has authority over everything from offshore wind projects to oyster farms along Rhode Island’s 400 miles of coastline.

By Jonathan Stone OPINION — The R.I. Supreme Court’s rejection of the “settlement” between Champlin’s Marina and the Coastal Resources Management Council should serve as a wake-up call to all Rhode Islanders. The decision makes it clear that the agency’s structure is fundamentally flawed and in need of immediate correction by the governor and General Assembly. Rhode Island’s coastal environment and Rhode Islanders themselves deserve nothing less.

Op Ed By Nathan Vinhaitero and Janet Freedman — … if the “shoreline” changes with each breaking wave, how do we draw a line in the sand for public access? Here’s what the science says on a very complex issue…

By Alex Kuffner — What the two scientists are showing through precise satellite measurements is something that has long been known: that use of the mean high tide line in state law doesn’t give the public very much access at all to the shoreline.

By Rob Smith — With summer approaching, the state’s activists are gearing up for battle over that most Rhode Island of issues: beach parking.

By Antonia Noori Farzan — Is the General Assembly willing to throw its weight behind an idea with broad popular support, knowing that it's all but guaranteed to lead to lawsuits?

By Bill Seymour — A new law proposed last week adopts this recommendation. It will first be considered by the House of Representatives and any approval moves it to the state senate and the governor for consideration.

By Brian Amaral — Shoreline access group is already planning its fight against upcoming legislative proposal

By Rob Smith — Next step: Panel will send a final report to the General Assembly with its recommendations

By Antonia Noori Farzan — If you have access to an old ox cart, now would be the time to get out a tape measure and figure out exactly how wide it is. The answer to that seemingly esoteric question could determine where you're allowed to walk on the beach this summer.

Interceding in a case raising significant issues involving government transparency in environmental disputes, four organizations recently filed a “friend of the court” brief in Rhode Island Supreme Court in a long-standing controversy involving the proposed expansion of Champlin’s Marina & Resort on Block Island.

By Antonia Noori Farzan — Most members of the special legislative commission on lateral shoreline access agree that it's absurd to use 18.6-year metonymic cycles to determine where the public beach ends and private property begins.

By Brian Amaral — Rhode Island lawmakers could actually redefine the rights of the “shore” further landward than the law does now, said Michael C. Blumm, professor at the Lewis & Clark Law School