Posted on June 4, 2019
There’s a new landscape to part of Duxbury Beach after completion of a $1.4 million dune restoration project. As it celebrates its 100th anniversary, Duxbury Beach Reservation Inc. has issued its first ever annual impact report noting progress on preparing for and limiting erosion.
DUXBURY — Visitors to Duxbury Beach this summer will be greeted by a new landscape, neatly engineered to help preserve the protective dunes for future generations. This past winter’s $1.4 million dune restoration project to increase the resilience of the barrier beach wrapped up successfully at the end of March. The nonprofit group that owns the beach begins a celebration of its 100th anniversary; a new 2019 Impact Report cites a sound financial foundation and a future plan to strengthen the “living” shoreline.
“The reservation kicked off the start of our second century having just completed a major restoration of the dune structure between the first and second crossovers, a very narrow section of the beach that needed to be strengthened,” Margaret “Maggie” Kearney, president of the Duxbury Beach Reservation Inc. said in the report. The dune work was a priority “as concern mounts for the impacts of sea level rise and increased frequency and intensity of storms,” she said.
The reservation, whose predecessor prevented the site from being developed into 200 house lots back in 1918, will mark its 100th anniversary with a gala in September, a new 100-year logo and a fundraising drive. The group reports private donations in 2018 outpaced those in 2017 by 27 percent. Due to the loss of access to federal reimbursement for storm damage repairs, fundraising is key.
The reservation, formed in 1974, has handled three major projects on the barrier beach. The newly completed dune nourishment project was partially paid for by a $500,000 Coastal Resilience Grant from the state Office of Coastal Zone Management. The remaining $900,000 came from prior fundraising efforts.The report is on the group’s web site.
Cristin Luttazi, executive director, reported on a long-term plan to win 10-year certification from the state, speeding up the approvals process and adding flexibility to respond to storm impacts more quickly and thoroughly.
The report states that more than half, or 55 percent, of 2018 revenue came from the town of Duxbury leasing the beach; 25 percent from daily parking and events at Duxbury Beach Park; 11 percent from contributions; 3 percent from both grants and dividends/interest. Some 61 percent of expenses was for property maintenance and improvement; 23 percent for the endangered species program; 13 percent for administrative and capital expenses and 3 percent in professional operations. Net assets in 2018 dropped from $5,015,910 to $4,416,454 due to the intensity of the three March storms.
“Check out the new dune as you walk or drive over the crossovers and notice the width across the top of the dune and the gradual incline to the ocean side,” Kearney said. “The dune has been designed to slow wave energy and increase coastal resilience.”
Duxbury Beach, enjoyed by people from across Southeastern Massachusetts, is owned by the reservation with a mission is to preserve and safeguard adjacent bays and mainland, protect wildlife and vegetation and provide recreational opportunities.
In the late 1890s, the Wright family owned the beach property and had plans to divide the land they owned into 200 house lots. In 1919, 18 Duxbury summer residents raised enough money to purchase Duxbury Beach and formed the Duxbury Beach Association. In 1974 the association transferred ownership of the beach to Duxbury Beach Reservation to continue the mission of preservation. The reservation owns the beach from the south end of the Duxbury seawall to the Gunet-Saquish guardhouse just north of Gurnet.
The reservation leases a portion of Duxbury Beach to the town of Duxbury, which sells both resident and non-resident stickers to access the beach. The lease for 2019 is $800,000 and funds a portion of the maintenance, repair, resilience and programming work at Duxbury Beach. In 2018, the reservation spent about $685,000 restoring dunes, rebuilding the road, mending fencing and planting vegetation.
The project reported that during the 2018 dune renourishment project:
- 76,633 tons of sand were installed and graded. This work raised 3,500 linear feet of the dune up to an elevation of 17 feet.
- The top of the dune was widened to more than 45 feet.
- 3,600 feet of sand fencing was replaced to protect the dune from foot and vehicle traffic and to trap sand to help build the dunes
- 80,000 culms of American beach grass and 100 woody shrubs were planted
- the first two vehicle crossovers were raised and realigned.
Duxbury Beach hosts two endangered species, the piping plover, listed as threatened under state and federal law, and the least tern, protected under state law. The two state and federally listed coastal waterbirds are present during the spring and summer; the reservation is legally responsible for their protection. The reservation pays for the Duxbury Beach Endangered Species Program, enacted by the Duxbury Police Department.
The report notes that Duxbury Beach is a barrier beach, with sand being deposited and washed away, and is slowly moving westward towards the mainland. Sand used to be added as it eroded from the shoreline north of the beach; now Duxbury Beach and others are sand starved. The quality of the beach has become rocky in the winter and spring because northeasterly winds pull the sand out. In the summer and fall, the sand comes back in with gentler wave action.
In an interview, Kearney cited the group’s ambitious long-term approach to increase the resilience of the beach. A 10-year certification process would decrease time spent in planning and permitting individual stages and allow quicker, more cost-effective responses to strengthening the beach. In early 2018, a series of devastating storms, including three nor’easters in March, did enormous damage. The completed restoration work is only a small part of the work needed.
The report also highlights the “dedication, ingenuity, and tireless efforts” of all those who have supported the beach – volunteers, donors, trustees, partners: “One hundred years of battering storms and countless repairs. A century’s worth of beautiful beach days and starry beach nights. Hundreds of smiles, ice creams, plover chicks and sandcastles. All of it has been thanks to you.”
In an essay, writer Barbara Ann Prince visualizes some of the magic: “The uniqueness of the habitat at Duxbury Beach provided us with many breathtaking gifts from Nature: snowy owls, birds of prey, ducks, piping plovers, coyotes running on dunes, a buck dancing in the marsh.”
Source: duxbury.wickedlocal.com
