Bye Bye Beach
By John Auwaerter
When it comes to beach erosion many people have no idea what it is. They just think it’s a natural occurrence where the waves take sand away every time they come on shore. When in fact beach erosion is a growing problem and can only be prevented by humans not walking on dunes and in ecological hotspots. Many common people flee to the beaches every summer leaving behind not only trash and litter, but also erosion, and they don’t even know it. On Long Island especially, beach erosion has taken its toll. During hurricane Sandy, the barrier beach called Fire Island that protects Long Island from storms wasn’t able to do its job because there were barely any dunes left keeping rising sea level at bay, so the water spilled over into the Great South Bay and went right up on land, my house was one of the many affected by this disaster.
The rates of Beach Erosion over the last couple of years have been exponentially skyrocketing. On Long Island alone, about 1-2 feet per year! That’s insane, the beach that I go to on Long Island is only about 200 feet wide, so, in 200 years that beach will no longer exist because of the rate of erosion on Long Island. While humans are not solely to blame, our impact has had a great effect on beaches and on the shoreline of Long Island. Due to global warming the waves and currents have gotten bigger and therefore causing more beach erosion, in fact 47% of Long Island’s barrier beaches have been eroded away. That’s demoralizing because that’s almost half of the beaches on Long Island and the rate of erosion is getting more and more each year.
Although there seems to be more causes than solutions for beach erosion, there have been strides to try to slow and prevent beach erosion. There are many ways of preventing beach erosion and the biggest way is to prohibit the use of beaches to pedestrians. Another way of slowing beach erosion is through the use of actual objects, for instance the use of jettys is a popular way of keeping a canal open while also preserving the beach on both sides of the canal. There are many more structures including Groins and Sea walls. While all these alternatives seem to work, they do but they are extremely expensive and take time to build and install. So while they prevent erosion, they are expensive and the government doesn’t feel the issue is big enough to spend money on. There is one other way of trying to reverse erosion, that is beach nourishment which includes planting beach grass, which holds the sand in place, and also adding more and but like the other this is expensive and not high on the priority list of the government. As someone who grew up on the beach, I would hate to see it go.
[photo, long beach, by Irene Lee licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
By John Auwaerter
When it comes to beach erosion many people have no idea what it is. They just think it’s a natural occurrence where the waves take sand away every time they come on shore. When in fact beach erosion is a growing problem and can only be prevented by humans not walking on dunes and in ecological hotspots. Many common people flee to the beaches every summer leaving behind not only trash and litter, but also erosion, and they don’t even know it. On Long Island especially, beach erosion has taken its toll. During hurricane Sandy, the barrier beach called Fire Island that protects Long Island from storms wasn’t able to do its job because there were barely any dunes left keeping rising sea level at bay, so the water spilled over into the Great South Bay and went right up on land, my house was one of the many affected by this disaster.
The rates of Beach Erosion over the last couple of years have been exponentially skyrocketing. On Long Island alone, about 1-2 feet per year! That’s insane, the beach that I go to on Long Island is only about 200 feet wide, so, in 200 years that beach will no longer exist because of the rate of erosion on Long Island. While humans are not solely to blame, our impact has had a great effect on beaches and on the shoreline of Long Island. Due to global warming the waves and currents have gotten bigger and therefore causing more beach erosion, in fact 47% of Long Island’s barrier beaches have been eroded away. That’s demoralizing because that’s almost half of the beaches on Long Island and the rate of erosion is getting more and more each year.
Although there seems to be more causes than solutions for beach erosion, there have been strides to try to slow and prevent beach erosion. There are many ways of preventing beach erosion and the biggest way is to prohibit the use of beaches to pedestrians. Another way of slowing beach erosion is through the use of actual objects, for instance the use of jettys is a popular way of keeping a canal open while also preserving the beach on both sides of the canal. There are many more structures including Groins and Sea walls. While all these alternatives seem to work, they do but they are extremely expensive and take time to build and install. So while they prevent erosion, they are expensive and the government doesn’t feel the issue is big enough to spend money on. There is one other way of trying to reverse erosion, that is beach nourishment which includes planting beach grass, which holds the sand in place, and also adding more and but like the other this is expensive and not high on the priority list of the government. As someone who grew up on the beach, I would hate to see it go.
[photo, long beach, by Irene Lee licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]