Mike Cipra, Friends of the Dunes
Editor’s Note: Here on the north coast we are lucky to have a gem of an ecosystem a short drive (or bike ride, or slightly longer walk) away. Along the coast west of Arcata and Eureka is over 1,000 acres of coastal dunes, home to rare coastal maritime forests, foredunes with native wildflowers, freshwater wetlands, broad moving dunes, and intertidal habitat. The Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes, Humboldt Coastal Nature Center, Manila Dunes and Samoa Dunes and Wetlands combine to make one of the longest contiguous stretches of coastal dunes on the West Coast. There are exciting things happening in our dunes, so be sure to go visit and appreciate this special place.
The restoration of our native coastal dune ecosystems in Humboldt Bay results in increased biodiversity. Numerous studies have reinforced what you can see with your own eyes when you visit a place like Lanphere Dunes—where removal of invasive European beachgrass, iceplant, and yellow bush lupine has been taking place for more than 40 years.
Based on the results of the recently-completed Humboldt Coastal Resilience Project, a six-year peer-reviewed study comparing an invaded dune system to a restored dune system (see EcoNews August 2022), we now know that restoring native habitat also makes our dunes more resilient to the impacts of sea-level rise and climate change.
This newly-published research on the resilience benefits of native dune ecosystem restoration is driving a new wave of emerging restoration projects on the north spit of Humboldt Bay. Just in the last nine months, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation have recognized the national importance of Humboldt Bay’s dune systems and the opportunity to combine the benefits of increased native species diversity with increased resilience. Together, these funders have committed to investing more than $2,775,000 over the next four years to dramatically increase the pace of dune ecosystem restoration. The focus areas for this work will be the foredunes of the Friends of the Dunes’ Humboldt Coastal Nature Center property and the foredunes and backdunes of the newly conserved Wadulh Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, just north of Lanphere. Wadulh is the word for dunes in Soulatluk, Wiyot language.
At the conclusion of the project, Humboldt Bay’s ecosystems and communities will benefit from a completely restored foredune running about five miles along the north spit encompassing these newly restored areas and the Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes in between. In addition, the entire Wadulh Unit of the Refuge is slated for restoration. This is landscape-level restoration.
In the end, if we know that the seas are rising and the climate is changing, and we know that restoration can make our ecosystems and communities more resilient to these changes, we have a responsibility to act—to accelerate the pace of dune ecosystem restoration of Humboldt Bay.