The wooden stakes planted in the Manila dunes are gone again, spurned as an un-sanctioned environmental experiment. The Manila Community Services District removed them today, and is storing the slats at its office if someone wants to pick them up.
According to Steve Werner, a Humboldt County building and planning supervisor, the district had to either amend its existing permit to include the stakes or else remove them from the beach. Werner said the installation of the stakes was “surprising to see without district authorization.” The Manila Community Services District owns the land and already has a permit for dune restoration, but that permit doesn’t include the rogue stake experiment, which went in without any official approval.
“I didn’t see a need for a permit. We’re just repairing,” said Uri Driscoll, who compared his group’s stake installation to children building in the sand. Now that he has learned the county sees it differently, he plans to investigate a little more.
On June 17, Driscoll and his ad hoc team, Bill Weigle, Dannis Mayo and Ray Reel, pounded in the sticks to try to rebuild what they consider a “blowout,” an unstable depression in the dunes (“Rogue Dune Experiment,” June 20). They were hoping to repeat the success of similar actions on the East Coast and in Oregon. It’s their contention that the removal of European beach grass by the Friends of the Dunes, under the auspices of the county and the Manila district, has damaged the dunes.
Friends of the Dunes Executive Director Carol Vander Meer conceded that stakes might be something to try in the future, but she stressed the need for careful consideration and input from the scientific community first. She pointed out, “What some people might call a blowout might be a natural area of movement that might allow new plants to come in,” adding, “From an ecologist’s point of view, we need some areas like that.”
Someone first removed the stakes over the weekend, but no one claimed responsibility. Driscoll and Reel wasted no time re-planting them, adding a sign that read, “Dune repair in progress. Please do not disturb.”
Coastal Commission District Manager Bob Merrill said his office has contacted the commission’s enforcement staff in San Francisco about the issue. While the area is not in a zone where the Coastal Commission issues permits, Merrill wanted to keep the San Francisco office in the loop.
John Woolley, a Manila Community Services District board member, said that any plan for the dunes “should be first examined as a proposal, which we’ve never received.” Even if the district wanted to add the stakes to its permit, the slats could not go in until the permit was amended and approved.
Driscoll was surprised to learn the stakes had been removed again. He said that the Manila Community Services District needs “to address the fact that they created a topographical change in the dune,” and that, “We’re hoping to have a collaboration … and bring the dune back to its original height and shape.”
This article appears in The Cost of Getting Clean.
Who is “rogue?”
Is it the persons that removed vegetation to the point
of erosion or is it those who seek to repair the eroded site?
Steve Werner said that there was NOT to be a geological component
in any of the CDPs (Coastal Development Permits), with erosion,
now, out of control, I’d say it is well past
time for the County to recognize that it is the permitees that are
running rogue. My hat’s-off to those who are trying to repair
somebody’s folly.
It is to bad that a small experiment that was being tried on the west coast for the first time (I don’t believe they have done this in Oregon yet) is this big of a deal. Really! I was looking forward to sharing our success with those who developed it on the East Coast later this summer when I visit Cape Cod. Seems pretty silly to have to be so rude. I thought we were more innovative here. Must just be rattling some egos.
This issue is not going away. We are not supposed to be lowering our primary dunes. There simply is no allowance for that in the coastal permit on file. I am also surprised that this blowout (or topographical change) was not mentioned in the monitoring reports. Hmmmm…
I must admit a chuckle when I saw the truck load of beach sand in the parking lot at Wildberries when I went shopping. Wonder if there was a permit for that!?
these guys are some of the looniest whackadoodles in Humboldt County. They’ve wasted thougsands of hours of public agency staff time on utter nonsense, all because they want to ride their horses anywhere they please. Some places allow horses, some places don’t. Get over it.
What has been wasting is our dunes. A 2007 geological report predicted that.
These agencies have a job to do and frankly fell asleep at the switch while believing something under the banner of “restoration” is all good.
It is time to grow up and face the new information we have and realize the previous practices of removing vegetation are causing a lot of unintended and undesirable consequences.
Try to get your mind around the fact this has little to do with riding horses. Most of the folks I know concerned about this don’t even ride horses. But I must say all the hellibaloo about horses on a foot wide dune path seems pretty trivial at this point.
IMO, there has been a lack of recognition or discussion of how historically driftwood accumulations out of coastal rivers were the drivers of dune stabilization and beach extension. However, given the cut-over nature of these watersheds, there’s a lack of driftwood on our beaches. Also, had to chuckle about the “hoping to share the successes of our experiment” comment. Seems like you’re going into your “experiment” with a pre-conceived notion (bias) of the results………not very scientific or objective.
People afraid to put their names to their words are afraid to be a part of the solution.
Step up be a part of the conversation. What solutions do you have?
Why would we want a smaller fore dune or ones with giant holes in them when we have sea level rise, increased storm surges and potential tsunamis? That is the question.
Were these projects properly monitored for the effects? intentional or not?
Check out OpenBeaches.org. Do some research. Or keep your head in the sand.