Posted on February 16, 2022
Two years ago after Indian River County dumped almost $4.8 million worth of sand on beaches from south Indian River Shores to Riomar Golf Course, I lamented the state of the dunes.
Sure, they were restored and built up. So much so that ignorant beachgoers traipsed in them like Dorothy and Toto in the poppy patch, leaving footprints and crushing the few puny sea oats, bitter panicgrasses, railroad vines and dune sunflowers the county planted to stabilize the sand.
Here’s the good news: From what I have seen, the dunes have held up pretty well in Vero Beach’s erosion-prone Conn, Jaycee, Sexton and Humiston parks. It might be as good a two-year period as I’ve ever seen, but the amount of inland sand trucked in and dumped likely was the most ever.
The bad news: I haven’t seen much vegetation growth.
Digging into remaining dunes
It’s why, in part, county and city officials have returned to try and preserve the remaining dunes.
There’s more: The city has been dealing with an interesting pickle. It’s actually had too much sand — if there can be such as thing — on some of its beaches. City Manager Monte Falls, who has worked at the city for more than 30 years, said the beach restoration project left dunes about 1.5 feet above where they’d been historically.
Matt Mitts, the city’s public works director, had to deal with the fallout.
“It caused some maintenance issues for us,” Mitts said, citing the unintended consequences of the surplus:
Sand blowing west and covering the city’s cement boardwalk, sidewalks and Ocean Drive. The city installed sand fences to catch sand blowing over the dunes, but the built-up collection jeopardized the stability of some retaining rails, Falls said.
“We’re grateful to have the sand, don’t get me wrong,” Falls said. “But you’re darned if you do (have the sand), darned if you don’t.”
Plugs might be OK, but …
The solution, which you might have seen if you’ve been to city beaches lately: Bulldozers evened out some of the dunes, pushing sand eastward, particularly at south Conn and Humiston parks.
On Thursday, county contractors planted sea oats plugs in various areas. Next: The city will plant more than 150 mature sea oats from three-gallon pots in the dune at Conn and Sexton beaches.
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