|
70-plus volunteers turn out for dune grass planting
By SARAH TRAVER
NARRAGANSETT - Bright and early Saturday morning, about 70-plus volunteers joined various groups and organizations to help in the Dune Restoration project at Narragansett Town Beach. Braving the whipping winds and chilly morning weather, the volunteers from across Rhode Island joined forces with the Narragansett Recreation Department, the R.I. Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and members of the town council, engineering department, Lions Club and Boy Scouts to help restore the dunes at the town beach.
Town Councilman Christopher Wilkens helped spearhead the campaign along with Joseph Amatore of the town’s engineering department and Barry Fontaine, the director of Narragansett Parks and Recreation. “This is something we talked about doing since last year’s big storm. We lost a lot of beach, sand and walkways. We know if we didn’t have the dunes we have here to begin with, the parking lots and areas near the beach would have been gone. That is when we started thinking about what we could do,” Fontaine said. The project consisted of planting 2,500 to 2,700 “plugs” or small tufts of American Beach Grass in an area between the North and South Pavilions at the beach. Volunteers could either be separators or diggers. Separators broke apart the tufts of grass and diggers planted them about halfway down in the dunes. Amatore said that the area being worked on was about 9,000 square-feet and that there is about 100,000-square-feet in total on the town beach that needs to be repopulated. “This feels like a pretty good success right now. I want to say thanks to everyone who showed up to volunteer their time,” Amatore said. He also said this was a big collaborative effort with all the different organizations that helped and also with all the support from the various communities.
Volunteers of all ages joined in the project. Children and adults alike came together to help preserve and restore the dunes and the beach that brings enjoyment to all ages. Some of the first volunteers on site were three teenagers, age 14, from Jamestown. They were Alex Boghossian, Oliver Nihan and Fergus O’Farrell. They arrived at about 8:30 a.m. and were there doing some community service hours for school. Last week they participated in a similar project in Jamestown. “This project is necessary to help protect our beaches. We were glad to volunteer our help,” said an older Narragansett couple. Julia Royster of Warwick, Katharine White of Cranston and Isabel MarcAurele of Cranston were there as a family project to help out with MarcAurele’s confirmation. “I wanted to learn more about beach grass planting and the dunes,” said Royster. The Surfrider Foundation is a national non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the world’s oceans and beaches. The Rhode Island Chapter representatives were there to lend their support. “It is a necessary project that the town needs,” said Sheri Fournier, a Surfrider member. Fontaine said the pilot project would be evaluated throughout the year and hopes in the fall more volunteers will come out to restore another section of the beach. He also said the project included cleaning up the dunes and adding new fencing around them as well as new signs. |
