The National Park Service, under the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages ten tracts of coastal land known as national seashores. Over 435 miles (700 km) of Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coastline, including over 592,800 acres (240,000 hectares) of beaches, dunes, sea cliffs, maritime forests, fresh ponds, marshes, and estuaries comprise the National Seashore System.

Protection of the sensitive natural habitats is only one of the objectives of the National Seashores System that the Park Service has established. These areas are also lightly developed for recreational purposes, including roads, administrative buildings, and some commercial businesses. In fact, until recently it was stipulated that public access must be provided to these areas. A third objective is to combat coastal erosion, as beaches and dunes are important as buffers to coastal storms.

The need to preserve coastal areas in their natural states was recognized as long ago as 1934, when the Park...