An oversand vehicle (OSV) trail on Chappaquiddick Island that was inaccessible for years due to erosion has been restored, just over a month before the Vineyard’s premier fishing tournament begins.
The Edgartown conservation commission unanimously voted on Wednesday, August 12 to reauthorize the Trustees of Reservation’s operation of a 450-foot trail that connects its Wasque Reservation and the state-owned Leland Beach, opening a vehicular land route between two fishing hotspots on the southeastern corner of Chappy.
“Everybody’s going to be so happy,” Darci Schofield, the Trustees Islands director, said after receiving the approval.
The eroded trail has been closed since at least 2022, when Schofield joined the Trustees, and was not included in the previous OSV trail proposal approved last year. But a series of storms that pummeled the Island between December 2024 and January 2025 shifted the sand in a way that the closed trail’s area grew to more than three acres, making it large enough for vehicles. The Trustees plan to work with Poucha Partners LLC, which owns Wasque Point, the property the path goes around, to manage it. Schofield said the new trail would be nine feet at its widest.
“Most importantly, it’s the area where we have a rip, [which] is a very popular fishing destination,” Schofield said. She also said the new trail would not cause disturbances as it goes over “bare sand” and won’t impact the area’s dunes, which act as natural buffers for inland areas from coastal storms and floods.
Schofield said the trail will be managed based on state guidelines to manage barrier beaches, protect shorebirds while allowing recreational use, and the Trustees’ management plan for Cape Poge, Leland, and Wasque. Schofield also said the trail would close depending on the beach conditions. These include erosion shrinking the corridor, which Schofield said was likely in the next two years with the “migration of the breach” that cut off Chappaquiddick from the rest of Edgartown in January, or a rare species being in the area, like when endangered piping plovers nested and hatched chicks in Wasque Point this year for the first time in a “very long time.”
Despite Edgartown conservation commission approval, the Trustees are awaiting feedback on its plan from MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program as the proposed area is designated by the state as priority habitat for rare species. The Trustees are also drafting an agreement with the Edgartown Parks Department to allow access between Wasque Reservation and the segment of Norton Point, another popular fishing spot, still connected to the rest of Chappy.
The restoration is a boon for anglers, especially since the over month-long 81st annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby is scheduled to begin on Sept. 13.
“Since the Derby’s inception, our participants have fished this stretch of shoreline extensively. It has produced countless weigh-ins and numerous winning fish, including last year’s shore bluefish winner,” a letter from the derby committee supporting the Trustees read. “Restoring OSV access to Wasque is especially important for many longtime Derby participants, particularly older anglers and those with mobility challenges.”
Still, how long the trail will be accessible is uncertain.
“It has a long history of being closed and then opened because Wasque is the most dynamic of our beaches,” Mary Dettloff, Trustees public relations director, told The Times.
