SEA BRIGHT – Volunteers will converge on the beaches of Sea Bright at 11 a.m. tomorrow to restore protective dunes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy last October.
The project is a partnership between the borough and the American Littoral Society, Clean Ocean Action, Surfers’ Environmental Alliance and the garden clubs of Rumson, Fair Haven, Navesink, and Little Silver. American beach grass is an important component of any dune system, promoting natural and more stable formation.
“Restoration of the dunes is a critical component of our long term recovery plan. We could not rebuild the dune system without the efforts of so many volunteers who have given their time and raised money to ensure a successful planting on Saturday,” said Frank Lawrence, chairman of the Sea Bright 2020 Steering Committee.
Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society said, “”Hurricane Sandy taught us the value of coastal areas like dunes and marshes. Rebuilding the dunes in Sea Bright is a nature-based approach to increasing the resiliency of the community. The Littoral Society hopes that the example Sea Bright is setting through this work, and the supporting partnerships which made it happen, will spread like beach grass throughout the Shore.”
Saturday’s event will begin with a brief talk by American Littoral Society educators about how dunes work, how they will improve Sea Bright’s resilience to storms, and how to plant the beach grass. Then volunteers from Sea Bright, neighboring communities, and the partner groups will plant 100,000 American beach grass plants on 1.5 acres of dune at 5 locations.
The project was made possible with funding from the project partners, the New Jersey Recovery Fund, the Mary Owen Borden Foundation, National Garden Club Natural Disasters Fund, Garden Club of NJ, Sea Bright Dunkin Donuts, and many individuals and families in the community.
