Beachgrass Restoration at Niantic Bay Boardwalk

On April 9th, the East Lyme Public Trust Foundation, Inc., under the direction of Project Manager Jim Gallagher, and with the assistance of the East Lyme Parks & Recreation Department, CT Sea Grant and students from East Lyme High School and UConn-Avery Point, planted beach grass in dunes along the Boardwalk beach.  American beach grass is an amazingly hardy plant that can survive in the hot, salty and dry dune environment. Because of its dense root structure and ability to grow through accreting sand, beach grass is critical in the formation and stabilization of dunes. The Public Trust and the volunteers planted approximately 400 beach grass shoots to stabilize dunes that have begun to form along the shore of Niantic Bay at the foot of the newly reconstructed boardwalk.

For more information about a long term study being conducted by the East Lyme Public Trust Foundation, Inc. see Progress Report #42, published in the November 2015 Post Road Review.

For more information about the beach stabilization project described above, look for the Progress Report #48 by Robert De Santo, PhD in the upcoming May 2016 Post Road Review.

(This post was revised on April 29, 2016 to add JIm Gallagher as the project manager, East Lyme Parks & Recreation Department as a project partner, and to include the informational link to the November 2015 Post Road Review article by Robert De Santo, PhD.)