The Trustees of Reservations has purchased the Wacks property on Chappaquiddick, giving the land conservation nonprofit ownership of the entirety of the Wasque Reservation.
The Trustees bought the small waterfront parcel from Jerry and Elene Stoler Wacks earlier this month for $100,000 and the transaction was recorded in the Registry of Deeds Friday. The couple’s home along the bluff was put in peril this winter after a new breach along Norton Point and was eventually torn down in February.
The property is approximately one to two acres depending on the erosion or building up of sand from the Norton Point breach. It was the last private holding at Wasque Reservation, an approximately 200-acre spit of shifting sand on the easternmost edge of Chappaquiddick.
With the Trustees acquisition, the public will be able to access a new expanded shoreline.
All of the home and the man-made elements were recently removed by the Wacks, according to the Trustees, though access to the area is currently limited by dune erosion previously caused by the breach.
Darci Schofield, the Trustees Islands portfolio director, was thankful for the chance to complete the Wasque Reservation.
“Wasque is a unique property that nature continues to reshape through storm events, strong tides, and sea-level rise,” she said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming the public to this new addition to the reservation, and to continuing to manage this unique, changing ecosystem that is home to remarkable and rare wildlife.”
The Wacks home, built in 1984, was the only house in the area. The couple had sought to shore up the beach using boulders this winter, but that wasn’t allowed under the wetlands regulations.
“Their only options were soft solutions – sand bags,” Edgartown conservation agent Jane Varkonda said in February.
The breach ended up opening up the shoreline, bringing the full brunt of the bay on the bluff where the Wacks house was perched. In the end, parts of the home began falling over the cliff and an emergency demolition was needed.
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