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The Character and Condition of the Ocean Beach is Dynamic and ever changing as it is Shaped by Water and Wind.
The High Storm Tides along with the Powerful Waves can Make or Break a Beach.
Sand Moves In or Out with the Ocean.Typically the Ocean Robs the Sand in the Winter and Brings it Back in the Summer.
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Cape American Beachgrass Withstands Dry, Salty and Windy conditions Survives Burial by Shifting Sand Thrives in very Hot, Unshaded Areas Lives on little Water and Organic Nutrients Its Dense root structure and its Ability Helps in the Formation and Preservation |
The wind, however, produces a negative effect regardless of the season.
When the wind catches and blows the sand off the beach, it’s gone.
Trapping the sand and keeping it in place on the beach and the dunes is a job that can be accomplished by beach plantings.
The most common plant species found on the maritime beach is the Cape American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata).
Plants that grow on the beach have to be able to withstand dry, salty and windy conditions.
They have to be able to survive burial by shifting sand. Cape American beachgrass is up to the challenge.
It can thrive in very hot, unshaded, conditions with little water and very little organic nutrients.
Because of its dense root structure and its ability to grow through accreting sand it helps in the formation of sand dunes.
Dunes play and important role in protecting the shoreline by buffering the incoming waves.
A dune well planted, especially with Cape American beachgrass, can be stabilized and continue to trap blowing sand.
But, as tough as the beachgrass is it can’t withstand trampling.
Once the beachgrass dies off and a swath through the dune is left, a “blow-out” occurs and the dune deteriorates.
Dunes can also be destroyed by heavy storms and flooding tides which undercut the dune structure.
Fencing and replanting with Cape American beachgrass can help to rebuild the dune system.
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Cape American beachgrass ranges from New England to North Carolina.
Generally the beachgrass grows up 2 to 3 feet high, the long blade like leaves swaying with the wind.
In the spring new green growth appears and quickly grows up and spreads until fall when the leaves brown.
As the beach grass captures the wind-blown sand it becomes buried.
The grass responds to being buried by sending out a new rhizome.
A rhizome is a stem which travels under the sand laterally.
From the rhizome a new shoot forms thereby helping the plant to spread horizontally up to 6’ to 10’ per year.
Cape American beachgrass does produce a seedhead and seeds,
but seedlings have a hard time getting a foothold in a hot dry environment so spreading is accomplished by rhizomes.
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Over the years Save the Beaches has conducted many beachgrass plantings and everyone can attest to the ease of planting.
In most cases poking a stick in the sand to make a hole; dropping in a few stems of the grass in;
and patting down the sand to hold the grass tight is all it takes. And, it works!
If planted in early spring it does take hold.
As it grows it traps the sand and it spreads nicely, several feet per year.
Preserve and Protect our Beaches.
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