Improving public beach access in Island County took a big step forward this week.

County representatives on the Sub-Regional Transportation Planning Organization on Wednesday agreed to earmark an additional $90,000 of federal transportation money for a total 2015 budget of $175,000 for the identification of existing public beach access. In so doing, the county demonstrated its commitment to preserving and maintaining a vital and seemingly ever shrinking public resource.

Well done Island County, well done.

In particular, Island Beach Access, a tireless citizen-based group of access warriors, and county officials such as Public Works Director Bill Oakes, should be recognized for their efforts.

Island Beach Access members like South Whidbey’s Mike McVay have for years fought to maintain public beach accesses that have been claimed or absorbed by private property owners. Likewise, Oakes argued strongly Wednesday for the additional funding and made clear his belief that beach access is something worth spending money on, and perhaps fighting for when necessary.

Indeed it is.

Washington lawmakers decided long ago to sell much of its shorelines to private landowners, and those today who can’t afford a place on the water have been paying the price ever since. While states like Hawaii and Oregon have kept their beaches public, protected by law, the vast majority of Washington residents’ access to the water is limited to a few shoreline parks and slivers of property found at the end of public roads.

And as the world’s population continues to grow, and more and more people clamor for their own piece of heaven, island real estate only becomes more valuable and harder to acquire.

Identifying what the public already owns, and improving it for the public’s use is the goal behind the funding decision, and it couldn’t be a better one.

Such resources are simply too rare, too precious to forget about or ignore, not when growth and development will only increase with time.

Will Rogers once said, “Put your money in land, because they aren’t making any more of it.” He couldn’t have been more right, and Island County’s public and private advocates for beach access deserve our thanks.