As summer continues at Moody Beach in Wells, families once again crowd onto 1% of the sand, while 99% lies virtually empty, due to inaccurate “Private Beach” and “No Trespassing” signs. These are inaccurate because no one disputes that the public has the right to “fish, fowl and navigate” on Maine beaches based on a 1647 Massachusetts colonial ordinance.

Beachgoers, of course, would like to do more than “fish, fowl and navigate.” Limited to one of three 50-foot public areas, however, there is no room to throw a Frisbee, splash in tide pools or play bocce. If the signs are ignored, one faces the threat of being arrested for trespassing by the Wells Police.

In the 1989 Bell case, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ceded what was, until then, considered public land to private homeowners. Filed in 2021, the Masucci case, now in front of Maine’s highest court, seeks to overturn that decision and return the shores and beaches of Maine to the public.

The court faces a decision: stand on the side of a minority of homeowners, who believe they’re entitled to own land on which they have never paid taxes, or side with the people of Maine and the summer visitors who are vital to its tourist economy. The just choice is clear.

Jeannie Connerney
Wells