The Cape Cod National Seashore's advisory commission hasn't met since last year, and their next meeting isn't until the fall.
That's according to Delaney Dryfoos of the Provincetown Independent.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Delaney to learn more.
Gilda Geist What is the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission and what does it do?
Delaney Dryfoos The Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission is a federal advisory board that was first established in 1961 to facilitate communication between the National Park Service and the surrounding local communities. It consists of 10 primary members plus alternates with six representatives from the towns of Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown, as well as a chair and alternate chair. There are two members representing the state, one member representing Barnstable County, and one member appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. The group met with the superintendent of the Seashore to discuss the park's formation and operations until its mandate expired in 2018. Since being revived in 2023, the commission has met to discuss development with the superintendent.
GG You reported that if the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission follows its own schedule, it'll go 14 months without a single meeting. Why is that?
DD The advisory commission last met on September 15, 2025. A meeting was planned for November 17, 2025 to discuss Cape Cod character, but this meeting never took place. Meetings scheduled for March and May were also postponed following changes in the Interior Department's review process. In an email I later obtained, Heather McElroy, alternate chair for the advisory commission, wrote to members that the Interior Department did not pre-approve the notice for March 9 in time for posting due to a new longer review timeline. These advisory boards are required to publish their agendas in advance to the Federal Register, which is the national government's daily journal. And so, these agendas were not being posted with enough time in advance. Therefore, the meetings had to be postponed. The next commission meeting has been proposed for November 2, 2026. The commission is supposed to meet once a quarter outside of the summer months.
GG As you mentioned, the advisory commission ended under Trump's first term and then was reinstated in 2023. And now under Trump again, the commission is having these issues with the Department of the Interior. Based on your reporting, does it seem like this most recent holdup is for bureaucratic reasons, political reasons or some combination of both?
DD It's hard to tell for certain because the Department of the Interior has not responded to my requests for comment, but it does appear that the November 17, 2025 meeting may have been postponed due to the government shutdown. It is unclear what has led to this new longer review process that halted the commission from meeting in March or May, but this doesn't seem like a difficulty that is faced by the Cape Cod National Seashore in isolation. There are similar advisory panels across the National Park Service that have faced repeated cancellations and meeting delays over the past 18 months. Park officials usually attribute this to backlog or the inability to publish these agendas in time for the required advanced notice.
GG What are the impacts of these missed advisory commission meetings?
DD Some of the members of the commission are concerned that they aren't able to meet with the superintendent to express some of their concerns. The preliminary agenda for the March 9 meeting had several planned items: construction activities for 2026, Eastham's Cable Road multimodal trail design and construction project, adaptive retreat planning for coastal bluff erosion and park projects being developed and planned for 2027 and beyond. And without these meetings, we don't have this sounding board that is used to connect the local community with the superintendent, so operation of the park is continuing with less input. And so we have some commission members who are concerned that this is getting in the way of the community's ability to communicate with a federal agency. Joanna Stevens, Eastham's alternate member, said that the commission is one of our few avenues to communicate with a federal agency that is so influential in our lives.
