Nourishing the Beach
While we've been down here at Edisto this year, we've been hearing a LOT about the Beach Nourishment Project which was going on this past year.
Actually, even if we didn't have relatives down here who had lots to say on the subject, we'd have noticed, I expect, cause the beach was way bigger than it was last year.
This would be on account of some entire sandbar which got dredged up and pumped onto the beach.
And just in time, too, since houses were beginning to go the way of the sand, which was pretty much into the water.
So we had beach nourishment, which is a Hot Topic.
We've been hearing about the beach nourishment for years, indeed, cause many people we knew were in favor of it (if your porch falls off your house I figure you take the loss of sand underneath it pretty hard), and others weren't. Turns out that experts agree with both sides.
We stay neutral. We're just visiting. And anyway, it's not like, if you have a beach you need to nourish, you feed it once. No, no. You have to do it ever oncet ina while.
So this spring, they were working out on the beach 24 hours a day, pouring sand on it. Did this bother the tourists? No, it did not, cause they were all home. Did it bother the residents? Yes, it did, cause they were sleeping. (Here are pictures of the entire process, taken from the porch of one of the houses which is, at the moment, no longer about to fall in the sea.) However, the project wasn't timed to honor the tourists. The project was timed to keep out of the way of the sea turtles, who need to NOT be confused by machinery when they show up to lay their eggs.
As it was, they were confused by the beach nourishment itself, which had changed the contours of the beach. Most of them managed to get the nests up near the dunes, but some of the nests are down close to the edge of the ocean, and this morning we found a nest which, though it had finally gotten dug up at the edge of the dunes, had been started three times earlier, closer to the water. That had to have been one tired turtle by the time the night was over.
Nest year, we'll see how much of this new sand is left on the beaches. Last we saw, there were the beginnings of little fences going up on scattered spots on the beach, meant, we're told, to encourage the growth of dunes. However, the groins which had been covered by sand in the nourishment are already reappearing. One could cement the sand, I suppose. That'd fix it.
Here's what I wanted to know -- When did we start all this nourishment stuff, and building groins and all?
And the answer is, we've been doing it a long long time. Cause essentially, this solid house building, and permanent highway business, is not how the beach thinks. The beach is a fluid sort of thing, left to its own devices.
And really, even when we mess with it, it's pretty fluid.
Which, come to think of it, makes sense, really....
Actually, even if we didn't have relatives down here who had lots to say on the subject, we'd have noticed, I expect, cause the beach was way bigger than it was last year.
This would be on account of some entire sandbar which got dredged up and pumped onto the beach.
And just in time, too, since houses were beginning to go the way of the sand, which was pretty much into the water.
So we had beach nourishment, which is a Hot Topic.
We've been hearing about the beach nourishment for years, indeed, cause many people we knew were in favor of it (if your porch falls off your house I figure you take the loss of sand underneath it pretty hard), and others weren't. Turns out that experts agree with both sides.
We stay neutral. We're just visiting. And anyway, it's not like, if you have a beach you need to nourish, you feed it once. No, no. You have to do it ever oncet ina while.
So this spring, they were working out on the beach 24 hours a day, pouring sand on it. Did this bother the tourists? No, it did not, cause they were all home. Did it bother the residents? Yes, it did, cause they were sleeping. (Here are pictures of the entire process, taken from the porch of one of the houses which is, at the moment, no longer about to fall in the sea.) However, the project wasn't timed to honor the tourists. The project was timed to keep out of the way of the sea turtles, who need to NOT be confused by machinery when they show up to lay their eggs.
As it was, they were confused by the beach nourishment itself, which had changed the contours of the beach. Most of them managed to get the nests up near the dunes, but some of the nests are down close to the edge of the ocean, and this morning we found a nest which, though it had finally gotten dug up at the edge of the dunes, had been started three times earlier, closer to the water. That had to have been one tired turtle by the time the night was over.
Nest year, we'll see how much of this new sand is left on the beaches. Last we saw, there were the beginnings of little fences going up on scattered spots on the beach, meant, we're told, to encourage the growth of dunes. However, the groins which had been covered by sand in the nourishment are already reappearing. One could cement the sand, I suppose. That'd fix it.
Here's what I wanted to know -- When did we start all this nourishment stuff, and building groins and all?
And the answer is, we've been doing it a long long time. Cause essentially, this solid house building, and permanent highway business, is not how the beach thinks. The beach is a fluid sort of thing, left to its own devices.
And really, even when we mess with it, it's pretty fluid.
Which, come to think of it, makes sense, really....
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