Happy Dune Stabilization Season!

Yes, it's everybody's favorite holiday, when lonely Christmas trees get put to use in keeping in place some of the most effective measures our coasts are blessed with: dunes!

It's week 2 of #climateadaptedinfrastructureweekly?(2022-2)

From coastal Georgia to North Carolina to to Connecticut to Massachusetts, evergreens can get a new lease on life. Or at least on fostering the preconditions for life, in this case coastal dune systems and associated wildlife.

Woods Hole Sea Grant's 'To Tree, or Not to Tree...' guide is an excellent short primer on do's, don'ts, best management practices, and design considerations. Here are some takeaways from this and other resources:

• Don't 'Just do it' (apologies, to Nike): Plan ahead. Approval for use may be required. Conservation Commission approval is required in Massachusetts, for example.
• Consider local conditions: Incorrectly installed trees can act as fire hazards, leading to the destruction of established dunes. In high energy wave locations, if not properly anchored and covered, lost trees can leave large, destabilizing holes in the dune.
• Nature abhors a vacuum: trees can be used to fill gaps in dunes, particularly a dune scarp - or exposed area where ocean-facing foredunes are partially eroded by waves - where beach grass needs a place to help establish itself until sand builds up to fill the scarp.
• Short and long-term benefits: a first layer installed on nascent, or "baby" dune lines can be augmented by adding additional layers of trees in successive years to help a dune as it matures.
• Habitat support / creation: trees can "provide cover for the birds during the winter, and the birds deposit seeds while in the trees. The trees quickly decompose, providing nutrients for the seeds. The seeds germinate and vegetation is reclaimed..." But, it is important to ensure trees don't present barriers to particular species, such as plovers.

If another argument against fake trees was needed, potential for use in dune stabilization should join the list!

#newlifeforoldchristmastrees #infrastructure?#greeninfrastructure?#bluegreeninfrastructure?#naturebasedsolutions?#nbs?#graygreeninfrastructure?#climateadaptation