Mar 23 2026

Upcoming:

As announced on facebook, the next MBA board meeting will be held Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom. I will share the link and add it to our calendar once I have it. [Addendum: link for zoom meeting.]

Summary of March 14 Friends meeting:

We had good attendance at our Friends meeting, with 7 people in person (including 2 first-time attendees) and 2 people remotely (at least one other person tried to attend remotely, but was unable to connect). We ended up having more of a free-flowing discussion than a structured meeting, and I was not able to capture everything in the notes.

First we addressed the rumor circulating about 900 new chairs. One of the members present talked to the concessionaire, and learned that only a couple dozen or so chairs had been purchased to replace broken chairs. We discussed what we thought might be some of the real concerns behind the chairs. These included: the chairs and their encouragement of density being at odds with the enjoyment of the natural beauty Fairchild had intended, and the combination of the density and specific placement of the chairs interfering with (morning) walkers having a beach-length dry walking path just above the water line particularly at high tide.

Another concern was not about the chairs themselves, but about the lack of assurance that there will be limits to the chairs and other concessions, which seem to be increasingly taking up more of the beach. Someone brought up the fact that there used to be no taxis over the bridge, but then a Disney tour was allowed over the bridge. Also that there was no commercial activity allowed on the far end of the beach (the part that was not donated by Fairchild), but then there were (briefly?) kayak tours on that end. The chairs are generally contained in a specific area, but subsequent to the meeting, a few chairs were set up by shed 4 for a special group.

Possible questions to pose to the chair concessionnaire and/or to MBA: Would it be possible to delay putting out the frontmost row of chairs until later in the morning, at least on high tide mornings? What are the boundaries of the area where chairs will be set up ahead of time? [If you have other concerns and/or suggestions for questions, please share them.]

We discussed the fact that MBA is tourist-focused, and most of the people who visit Magens Bay are tourists, but that we need to also preserve the beach for the non-human inhabitants (as well as ourselves and tourists). One attendee reminded that Fairchild left the beach as a sanctuary. We also noted the influence that the people and government of the Virgin Islands (beyond the instrumentality of MBA) can have over Magens Bay. As one example, the topic of moorings came up, including the need to have DPNR enforcement of the area before moorings could be viable, and the fact that Magens Bay was long ago designated an Area of Particular Concern, but special protections have never been developed or implemented. A few politicians were mentioned as people who might be interested in the preservation of Magens.

Some of the meeting focused on environmental issues. These included: publicizing the reef-safe sunscreen law at Magens (and other locations on the island), the phasing in of plastic recycling, and trash blowing out of the bins overnight. A Friend reported that the water bottle refilling station at the concession is getting twice(!) the usage since it has been made more visible, and the concession is no longer using styrofoam. We generated other ideas for reducing the amount of plastic waste at the concessions, such as selling boxed water (Soca Shores) instead of plastic bottles, and having condiment dispensers as an alternative to condiment packets. We discussed the need for tourists to be given an orientation, likely by taxi/tour operators, that includes environmental awareness. (We also briefly interrupted the meeting to chase a stray balloon that was blowing down the beach, and we successfully prevented it from entering the ocean.)

Our last topic was getting the word out about Friends and Magens Bay happenings particularly on social media, partnering with other active organizations, and growing the group to encompass a wider range of participants.