Blog post by Tony LaCasse
From September 14 -17, 2025, twenty-eight members of the Center for Coastal Studies Beach Brigade collaborated with the Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation on an “adventure cleanup” of Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor. Tony’s reflection sums up the sentiment of the group.
Wow!
That was the first thought in my head when I awoke the first day after the clean-up. We truly did a massive amount of work while having a lot of fun.
Photo of the author by Adrianne Lovuolo, CCS Beach Brigade
Such a beautiful setting, shared purpose, great food, strong camaraderie and much more made this trip more meaningful than usual. That feeling resounds with the potential to be something more transformational.
The obvious and great fact was that our efforts had transformed the land and seascapes of Peddocks Island. That statement is not hyperbole.
Photo of Peddocks Island by Hilary Moll, CCS Beach Brigade
When descending from East Head, the site of the old Fort Andrews, you used to look over the salt pannes and the crescent beaches that linked the low elevations between the island’s two main drumlins. The outline of the place was beautiful, but on closer look, you saw dozens of giant, broken, black plastic flotation boxes littered all across the landscape.
The four hundred yard long shorelines on both sides were marred by the long derelict remains of broken piers, floats, vessels and gangways, seemingly every fifty yards. Their metal and wood frames lay partially in buried in the sand and gravel.
Their foam and plastic contents, once used for flotation, spewed out in various stages of decay with sizes ranging from that of kitchen tables to popped popcorn and eventually a carpet of dangerous plastic beads collected in the lowest lying spots.
The detritus of the high tide lines had the usual array of human-made objects interspersed with the seaweed. Ubiquitous plastic food and drink containers, bits of plastic marine rope, small pieces of pressure-treated wood were among the more usual suspects.
Upon entering any vegetation zone behind a shoreline, one was greeted with layers of litter with some of it clearly many decades old.
Running perpendicular to the shorelines and across the island was the scar of an old chain link fence. It was mostly knocked down and posed significant health hazard to the island’s resident wildlife and its human visitors. The fence’s small diamond pattern buried in the sand and sundry wires were traps to unwary whitetail deer or wading birds.
Photo of dismantled chain link fence by Jeffrey Mercer, CCS Beach Brigade
In the span of four days and the concerted effort of a small but dedicated group of people, nearly all of that ugliness in this beautiful space is gone. It’s just gone!
Beyond the physical transformation of Peddocks’ landscape are the less tangible ones to the people who use and care for it. Our cleanup efforts have a legacy effect on every visitor – whether a child first discovering the beauty of nature, a teen seeking inspiration, or an adult finding some peace. They can now better see and experience what the island has to offer.
Other transformational effects might be institutional and cultural – hopefully helping the governing partners of the Boston Harbor Islands and the state to prioritize and allocate more resources to the direct care of the natural assets of the park. This seemingly intractable problem on Peddocks was largely taken care of by a group of focused and hard-working volunteers in less than a week.
photo of barge full of debris by Jackie Ranney, CCS Beach Brigade
The last transformations are the personal, within each of us – all different, all unique.
I sincerely hope that we can make this effort an annual event. In a decade, we could transform all of the outer islands of Boston Harbor to their greatest potential.
Thanks to all the volunteers for your part and effort that has yielded such a tremendous outcome and impact.