The large waves that pounded our north and windward shores this winter have caused much damage to both private property and public infrastructure.

No one should be surprised that we are experiencing these losses. Beach erosion is a present and ongoing danger to the coasts of all islands in Hawaii, and will only get worse as global climate continues to warm and sea levels rise.

Geologist Chip Fletcher and his dedicated staff at the University of Hawaii have explicitly documented the rates of beach loss in an indisputable manner. Beaches will continue to erode under the inexorable forces of nature, and will erode even faster if traditional means of intervention are allowed to be implemented.

Seawalls and revetments are definitely not the answer in most cases — a quick walk in the Kahala area will show that beach loss is exacerbated by shoreline hardening.

So how should we respond to this ongoing threat to some of our most precious resources?

The most logical response would be wholesale retreat from erosion- prone shorelines, an economically and politically difficult solution.

In a perfect world, we would never have allowed any development directly on the shoreline. In our current situation, however, the counties are very dependent on the property tax revenues of beachfront properties, and the political clout of the owners of these properties is also quite formidable.

Private property rights are generally sacrosanct in America, but the Hawaii Supreme Court has consistently held that the public trust resources must be protected, even if certain private property interests may be compromised.

Private-property owners need to face the fact that they bought an ephemeral piece of the Earth, and government decision-makers have to settle on a reasonable condemnation process for these properties, not accommodate even more shoreline hardening through special exemptions as proposed by current legislation being considered this session.

Despite the discomfort this may cause, we must quickly commit to the long-term protection of our beaches and shoreline access by making the tough decision to retreat from the eroding shoreline.

If the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the county permitting agencies are allowed to either ease the rules regarding shoreline hardening or grant more “hardship” exemptions, we will undoubtedly lose some of our finest beaches. These two agencies have proven too often that they are unable or unwilling to respond to either the hired-gun technical experts or the powerful private-property interests that want to build on the shoreline using the hardship variances.

Such variances have already given us far too many walls and revetments that have protected private property at the expense of public beaches and public access.

We also have to make it clear to our public agencies, especially the state Department of Transportation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that they cannot continue to engineer their way out of this issue.

These two agencies have either permitted or built more beach-eroding structures than any private entities. They have to adopt a longer-term perspective regarding the appropriate locations and design of port and roadway infrastructure.

A lei of publicly-accessible green space and sandy beaches around the island would benefit all Hawaii residents, and ensure that we maintain one of our strongest tourist attractions.