From the Falmouth Enterprise · April 12, 1983
The Department of Environmental Management set a hearing for April 13, 1983, at Morse Pond School, a required step in the eminent domain process to gather the town’s views. By then the taking itself was assumed; the open questions were timing, which passive uses to allow, and where to park on the mainland. Deputy commissioner Robert F. Yaro said the state would rely on its 1978 landscape study of the 340-acre island, which recommends passive recreation and calls it an endangered natural resource, and would manage it with South Cape Beach.
CPWB chairman William J. Overholtz said the group wanted the island left as it was, with fishing, clamming and birdwatching intact and only small changes such as nature trails, signs and erosion control. The group endorsed the state’s 1978 study, and Yaro said use would never be intense. Even the developers wanted the state to move faster. Selectmen planned to vote at the end of the hearing on whether to support the taking. The state took the island two months later, in June 1983.
Read the full story in the Falmouth Enterprise archive: “Next Step In Taking Of Washburn Island” →
This is CPWB’s summary of a news article. The full article and its photos are published by the Falmouth Enterprise. The page is in the Falmouth Public Library’s digital archive of the Enterprise.
Drafted with AI assistance from the linked source.
