Tolowa Dunes Stewards
How you can help
The good news is that coastal dune restoration has finally arrived on the Tolowa Coast, and you can help. Your help is needed and will make a great difference in the survival of many native plant and animal species that depend upon native dunes. In fact because we still have a great diversity of native dune plants “hanging on,” unlike other areas of the west coast, you can have a tremendous impact by liberating habitat for these plants, and for the dune bees that depend upon them, and for the western snowy plover and other shorebirds, to breed and thrive.
In California more than 90% of our native coastal dunes and wetlands have been lost to development or otherwise destroyed. The Tolowa Coast protects one of the largest and most biodiverse native dune and wetland ecosystems remaining in California and indeed on the entire west coast. However, here as elsewhere in California, Oregon and Washington, early European settlers planted invasive European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria ) to control what they saw as a great and useless evil: moving sand. European beachgrass has now infested virtually all of the foredune areas of the Tolowa Coast, and is marching steadily inland. We have come to understand that it converts our dunes into a vast sterile ‘desert’ where native plants and animals cannot survive.
As Del Norte county is rural, potentially all human residents as well are impacted by this spreading desert, because we depend upon native bees to pollinate our fruit trees and other food crops and flowers. This is even more so as European honeybees are dying out. Many native bees (at least 21 species) in our area nest in the dunes. They depend upon native dune plants for nectar (food) but these are being choked out by European beachgrass, which produces no nectar-bearing flowers. The history of European settlement comes back around to us as a challenge, and an opportunity, to correct the mistakes of the past and face the future with celebration and joy.
We are out there several times each month in the most beautiful places liberating habitat for our precious native species. Please join us by sending an email or calling 707 954-LAKE (5253).