b'C H A P T E R T E NFriends of Pleasant Bay; Harbormaster Peter B. Ford; Shellfish Warden Kassie Abreu; and Paul Berquist, fishing boat captain.That was not FCWs only step. It also paid to publish a supplement in The Chronicle. Its eight pages recapped a 1978 study by Dr. Giese of Chathams Barrier Beaches. In a potent visual sidebar, it showed through simple maps how wind, wave and storm had changed the form of those beaches as far back as 1770. Laid out on the supplements last page, a coupon invited readers to make a tax-deductible contribution to a new Barrier Beach Study Fund.Was the Saturday-morning forum worth the effort? As many as 200 residents must have thought so, showing up for the display of research and the discussion.As moderator, Batch Batchelder concluded, We could not have designed an issue that has so galvanized the people of Chatham, the nation and international community.At least one item cited was sobering: the inner shore between Holway Street and Little Beach had receded as much as 47 feet, according to Dr. Giese.7Again, the Frail ShorelineFive years had gone since the Nauset Beach break-through, and blistered questions still would not heal.Who says we cant put up a revetment?What makes you think you can?Whats all this about a coastal bank, and whats so different about a dune? Arguments were heading for the land of lawsuits. All of that was swirling around, remembers Lew Kimball, and we felt that as an organization, we really had to get involved. FCWs role: to provide solid information to help the body politic make good decisions. This was early in 1992.So the wintertime board of the Friends went to work. Ever-resourceful Martha Stone may have been out of town until spring, but she checked her contacts in the South. That exercise yielded the name of an authority who could explain to Chathamites the different ways of handling coastal erosion. He was Dr. Orrin Pilkey, professor of geology at Duke University and an expert on developed shorelines, thoroughly familiar with the kind of problems Chatham was having, in the words of Lew Kimball. Pilkey agreed to come to town early in March 92, traveling at FCWs expense (plus an honorarium). On the date set, more than 250 residents went to the High School for his speech, sponsored jointly by FCW and the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod.Covering the event for The Chatham Current, reporter David Reilly caught the essence of Dr. Pilkeys straightforward remarks about the complete range of187'