To the editor:

Recently my wife and I went to Blue Trail Launch Site, which is at the end of Corys Lane in Portsmouth. My wife was scared of this surrounding area, scared to be in an area she grew up. The area has been desecrated by litter and graffiti. So badly desecrated that my wife felt unsafe in this area.

Why should we feel unsafe to go to beaches we have gone to for over 50 years and feel unsafe? What is going on in Portsmouth that our beaches and beach accesses are being treated as garbage dumps? Why are our elected officials not doing anything about this? What are we to do as a community with the growing issue of shoreline desecration? Something more sustainable needs to be done, but what? 

I know there are groups of people going around picking up this trash. I know that Clean Ocean Access is trying and help is growing. But there seems to be more of those who desire to desecrate our beaches than those who are actively trying to save our shorelines.

This littering and desecration is getting worse and worse as the years go. 

David Souza

25 Lowell Drive

Portsmouth