Open Land Trust opposes development of Bay Point

 “The greatest threats to Beaufort County’s beaches come from the challenges inherent in building permanent structures in a shifting natural environment. Concern about sea level rise only compounds this issue. In a natural barrier island environment, beach erosion would simply cause waves to break higher up shore. Over time, sand would be carried behind the dune system and the beach would “retreat” inland. Man-made structures interrupt this natural process, create concerns about property loss and may actually accelerate erosion.”

– Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan, Natural Resources Element, Beaches and Dunes, Threats, updated 2017

So me ‘n’ Sybil is down visitin’ from Muncie, and the cabin-like place we're stayin' in is on a pretty large lot near the marsh, you see, where on one side the egrets stick up their necks every now and then to look around, and on t'other side sits a bigger house, also rented, presently to two or three couples, not sure which, but two of ‘em likes to stick up their necks more than every now and then, not to look around, mostly, but to talk, to the point that me ‘n’ Sybil have to leave the cabin like stealth commandos just to get out to the street so as to take a walk...

In recent weeks, as our economy has reopened and public health experts have reiterated how to slow the spread of Covid-19 – practice social distancing, wear a mask in public, avoid group gatherings, regularly wash your hands – we've heard about "contact tracing," a decades-old strategy that, when properly implemented, enables the strategic focus of scarce resources on actual vectors of infection, rather than on whole populations.