Locals in Encinitas, California, know Cardiff State Beach for recreation, relaxation and a spectacular ocean view. Less known is that it has long been under steady attack from waves, high tides and erosion. "We have records of ocean water flooding Highway 101 at least 42 times since the '80s," said Katherine Weldon, a former manager in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Coastal Program. The problem predates Encinitas becoming a city.
Federally threatened western snowy plovers on Cardiff State Beach, home to the largest winter roost of the species in San Diego County. Photo: Carolyn Lieberman/USFWS.
Dunes in old photographs
The idea for a fix came from a city lifeguard captain, Larry Giles, who told Weldon that sand dunes used to stand there. Old photographs of the beach confirmed it: natural dunes and a cobble berm had dominated the shore before development. That discovery led to a living shoreline, a way of making a coast more resilient with plants and other natural materials rather than walls alone.
A partnership formed to recreate the dunes: the City of Encinitas, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the Nature Collective and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Native coastal plants on the new dunes. Photo: Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS.
Rock inside, flowers on top
"Construction includes rip rap and cobblestone buried underneath a pile of sand that is collected from San Elijo Lagoon to reduce erosion and protect against sea level rise," explained Carolyn Lieberman, the Service's Coastal Program coordinator. The reinforced dunes are planted with native species such as sand verbena and Nuttall's acmispon, which give habitat to the threatened western snowy plover and the endangered California least tern.
A Nature Collective volunteer and an intern pull invasive sea rocket from the new dunes. Photo: Maideline Sanchez/USFWS.
The project also added public paths, with separate lanes for joggers and cyclists, and signs to teach visitors about dunes and wildlife.
One of the new access paths. Photo: Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS.
A test for the coast
The project cost $3.8 million, with the Service's Coastal Program contributing $40,000. It is one of a number of living shorelines around the world meant to protect threatened infrastructure as the sea rises, and a "step in the right direction to do larger-scale living shorelines along the coast," in the words of Evyan Borgnis Sloan of the State Coastal Conservancy.
Darren Smith of the California Department of Parks and Recreation at the north end of the project, whose reinforced dunes will help protect infrastructure from rising seas. Photo: Maideline Sanchez/USFWS.
The beach will be monitored for at least five years against success criteria set in advance: how much of it plants cover, how well the dunes hold up, and more. The results will tell other coastal cities whether this kind of dune system can protect them too.
Sources
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Living Shoreline Project holds ocean at bay,"; rewritten in hubnx's own words. Photos from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.fws.gov
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