Posted on June 30, 2025
Unwitting mariners may be all too familiar with the shallow waters and sand bar at the mouth of Warwick Cove. Warwick Harbormaster Jeff Baris estimates “there are 900 groundings annually in that area, but thankfully most of them have very little damage because of the sand.”
The City Council on June 16 approved the award of a $3-million contract funded by the state Department of Environmental Management for The Nature Conservancy to manage the dredging of Warwick Cove. At the meeting, city Planning Director Tom Kravitz advocated to proceed in planning through a direct contract with TNC for the management of a design-build coastal resilience and dredging project. With Kravitz was Megan DiPrete, chief of planning and development at the DEM, who answered questions from the council TNC and advocated it be selected for the job.
Warwick Cove is a popular boating area on Narragansett Bay, especially in the summer season. According to Baris, more than 2,000 boats dock in the cove across more than a dozen marinas. He said the cove is “so heavily trafficked, not only by pleasure boats, but also by [commercial] shellfishers.” In addition to docked boats, the public boat ramp in Oakland Beach at the end of Bay Avenue is used daily by boaters in the summer.
Ward 6 Councilman William Muto emphasized the use of the boat ramp. “It’s so heavily used,” he said. “We’re a boating community.”
“This is a long time coming,” former Councilwoman and Ward 6 resident Donna Travis said during the meeting. “Warwick Cove is a special place. We have 39 miles of coastline [in Warwick] and we should be protecting every inch of it.”
The dredging would be fully funded by a $3-million project grant from the DEM and is valid through April 30, 2027. No City of Warwick funds would contribute to this project. DiPrete recommended TNC manage the project. TNC is an international environmental non-profit organization dedicated to conserving lands and waterways. Scott Comings, associate state director of TNC, would serve as the project manager and would be assisted by John O’Brien, partnership specialist at TNC.
“There was money put into the state budget last year to dredge a portion of Warwick Cove,” DiPrete told the council. “We have a lot of great relationships with the City of Warwick; we’ve done a number of programs together. We have confidence that working closely with the city would be the best, most efficient way to advance the project.”
In a letter to Kravitz, Comings wrote that “TNC is uniquely qualified to work with the city to design and complete the most environmentally beneficial project possible, while getting the most out of every dollar, on a very aggressive timeline.” He said the dredging is limited to an environmental window that runs from mid-October through Jan. 31. This time frame is expected to have limited impacts on recreation and leisure boating in the cove.
However, there are some concerns surrounding the project, especially around funding and maintenance. “I don’t want to spend $3 million and then have to follow up every five or six years,” said Ed Ladouceur, Ward 5 councilman and chairman of the council’s finance committee. “How certain is everybody that this $3 million won’t turn into $4 million?”
Baris said, to his knowledge, Warwick Cove was last dredged in 1966, following the demolition of a railroad bridge that ran across the cove, creating the potential for a deeper channel to accommodate increased boat traffic. Baris said, “for the most part it’s lasted well, but there are some restrictions, particularly around the entrance [to the cove].” While the project is still in the planning phase, he predicts that most of the work would take place between U.S. Coast Guard navigational markers 3, 4, 5 and 7.
Dredge spoils would be hauled to locations that have yet to be determined. If the sand is deemed environmentally clean through sampling tests, it could be used in coastal resilience projects such as restoring dunes on the west shore of Oakland Beach and Brush Neck Cove.
