A community committee is leading the way on dune restoration at Carter’s Beach.
Ruth Smith with the Carter’s Beach Adhoc Community Liason committee, says they started replanting grass on some of the dunes at the Port Mouton beach earlier this week.
They were joined by a class from NSCC and staff from Nova Scotia Environment.
Smith says the grass is key to keeping the dunes from eroding.
“Dune grass has an extensive root system which binds the dune system together and provides stability to the dunes.”
The group replants grass by transferring it from an area where it’s abundant to a dune that is lacking.
Smith says it’s not a difficult process and the plants fair well after being transplanted.
An increase in visitors to the beach has negatively affected the dune system, leading to grass being trampled.
“Eventually you get breaches in the dune where there’s no grass at all and then wind and waves can go through those breaches and cause blowouts behind the dunes.”
But there is hope for restoration.
This is the second year piping plovers have been spotted in the area after years of absence.
That makes staying off the dunes that much more important.
