For years, New England BHA’s RI Team has worked to protect, and enhance, shoreline access in the Ocean State. Over the last half-decade, the RI Team has hosted and participated in webinars, testified before numerous legislative commissions & committees, and circulated action alerts to elevate the voices of our members and the public. These efforts culminated in the passage of landmark shoreline access legislation in 2023.

Almost immediately, a flurry of lawsuits were filed against the State, fueled by attorneys from the Pacific Legal Foundation. As the hard-won shoreline access law moved through RI’s judiciary, the BHA team continued to exhaust all options to ensure the public’s Constitutional shoreline rights are upheld and are liberally construed.

Earlier this month, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief jointly with The Surfrider Foundation urging the RI Supreme Court to uphold the 2023 law. In the brief, BHA and Surfrider detail Rhode Island’s legal and customary shoreline history and why the new law was needed to correct longstanding flaws, and how the new law created certainty that will benefit both the public and property owners alike.

Read the BHA / Surfrider Amicus Curiae Brief

Moving forward BHA will continue to monitor the lawsuit’s progress in the RI Supreme Court and seek out opportunities to support the law as they present themselves. BHA is grateful to RI attorney Sean Lyness, who generously represented the parties on the brief, and to our friends at The Surfrider Foundation, with whom the brief was jointly filed.