You might want to think about taking your boat home if you own one of a nearly dozen at the Barters Island Road public access. Boothbay officials announced plans on June 3 to remove boats from the public access if  left overnight. According to Town Manager Dan Bryer, boats, kayaks and ice houses are routinely left on the property year round. It seems boat owners bring their recreational items there and leave them. But this practice is about to end.

The town’s new policy is for making “the public access more accessible to the public,” Bryer said. This is the first of several steps Boothbay and the Boothbay Region Water District are taking to improve the public access. The public works department has ordered a sign warning owners to store their boats in a different location, or the town will remove them. 

“It’s never been OK to leave them but for some reason people do, and, it seems to be getting worse each year. For those who leave their boats, we will remove and store them, and owners will be responsible for our time,” Bryer said. 

Once the sign is received, the property will be posted. The town will allow owners a few days to remove their boats before removing them. Town and district officials have plans for protecting the vegetation there. Public works will place a barrier in front  of a nearby stream to prevent vehicles from parking  on the vegetation. The barrier also serves another purpose. It prevents trucks from driving over a nearby stream and onto Knickerbocker Lake. Last winter, BRWD watershed program manager Sue Mello received a report that a truck drove onto the lake.

Residents ice fish on the lake, but this was the only instance Mello knew about joyriding. Town officials plan on placing boulders in front of the stream. This will prevent vehicles from parking on the vegetation and prevent vehicle access to the lake.

“This is something we’ve wanted to address for years. We’re also improving the road and parking lot, but the main goal is protecting the vegetation. This will prevent erosion and runoff,” she said.

Later this summer, Mello and BRWD intern Zack Vise will begin mapping invasive species inhabiting the public access. The two will later begin removing invasive species from there. Mello expects it will be a long and arduous task.  “They just come in and overwhelm all the natural species. We can start this summer, but I’m not sure we will ever finish. This could take years, and we still might not get to remove all of them,” she said. 

The public access improvement project will use federal grant and municipal funds, according to Mello.