Welcome to Port Burwell's East Beach. It's known as the East Beach to differentiate it from the slightly more famous beach on the west side of Big Otter Creek, now part of Port Burwell Provicinal Park. However being closest to the downtown of Port Burwell, this beach is extremly important to the local economy.
Erosion
The ever present threat to beaches is erosion. Erosion can happen when waves from the lake come up on shore and take sand back into the lake. Additionally rain, wind, human activity and animals could also cause erosion, for example, the nearby piers could create whirlpool effect on the lake, speeding up erosion.
Practical Engineering has an very interesting video on the subject of coastal erosion. Here shows the effect of water on sand.
Eventually the beach could disappear entirely if the erosion isn't maintained. Which would be bad for the town and environment.
Dune Restoration
There are many different ways of managing erosion. Sand Dune Stabilization is a very simple type of erosion managment, the dunes themselves prevent sand from being blown away by the wind and limit the amount of damage waves can do in storm events. An important part of dune structure is the flora that helps keep the sand together. A variety of different grasses and shrubs can be planted to help with this process, including Spartina Partens, Iva Imbricata, Ammophila Breviligulata,Vaccinium Ovatum and Hudsonia Tomentosa.
These plants can be quite delicate and could be destroyed if people were allowed to walkthrough them. Pathways and fences are often put up to prevent people from walking on them. Fences can also aid the dunes by keeping the sand in.
Above is a diagram of how dunes prevent erosion.
Questions:
There are two stages given
- At the Posted Coordinates, identify the type of grass planted here using either information nearby or your own observations.
- What structure here can help the sand dunes? Hint: It's not just for keeping people out!
- At the second stage, are the plants and dunes here doing better than those at the first stage? Why?
- What is present at both stages that can produce additional erosion? Do you think it was a factor in choosing these locations for the dune restoration?
- Lastly examine the comparison picture below. With what you observed in Question 4, do you think the dunes are helping?
As always photos are NOT required but appreciated!
Sources:
- https://teara.govt.nz/en/diagram/4825/fore-dune-formation-and-erosion
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_dune_stabilization