Printed with permission as fellow members of the RINewsCollaborative (RINC.news)
by Rob Smith, ecoRINews
Photo, top: The Nope’s Island Conservation Association says its decreased off-road drivers on the Quonochontaug Beach by about 90%. (Rob Smith/ecoRI News)
WESTERLY, R.I. — Longtime users of the Quonochontaug Sand Trail will notice some new changes for this year’s off-season.
The 1.6-mile, off-road trail now contains several pull-off areas, where vehicles can pass one another, and plenty of wood fencing tied together with hemp rope to block further passage onto Quonochontaug Barrier Beach.
For the Nope’s Island Conservation Association, the organization that spearheaded the changes and manages almost all of the barrier beach, it’s about protecting the sand dunes and vital bird habitat from washing away due to human misuse.
“We’ve got the bad drivers down about 90%,” Michael Sands, an association member, said on a recent tour of the sand trail’s new biodegradable infrastructure. “The next 10%, that was always going to be the hardest to deter.”
In the decades since Hurricane Carol, much of Quonochontaug’s barrier beach has washed away, blown into the ocean, or blown into Quonochontaug Pond just behind the barrier beach. The eastern section of the beach, about a third of the way down the sand trail, is in the worst shape. That section of the beach is flatter and thinner around the pond, and it has the least amount of dunegrass.
Drivers down the sand trail will notice this year 6-inch wood slats planted in the ground. It’s a form of biomimicry to hold the sand and rebuild the dunes, according to Sands, who said the conservation association took the idea from one of the beaches in Truro on Cape Cod.
Quonochontaug’s barrier beach is one of the state’s most isolated and unique coastal ecosystems. The beach makes a nearly complete barrier between Quonochontaug Pond and the open ocean, not including the breachway connecting the two.
It’s popular with nearby residents and tourists alike. Its most famous summer population, however, are the piping plovers that nest and mate on the sand dunes during the summer. Access to Quonochontaug Barrier Beach and the Sand Trail is restricted in those months. It’s also popular with species of terns and oystercatchers.
But like much of Rhode Island’s pristine south shore, the barrier beach is also in danger of eroding. Invasive plants have heavily encroached on much of the barrier beach, some planted on purpose— like the Japanese black pine planted by state officials in the 1970s — and some finding their own way onto the barrier beach, such as phragmites and Asiatic sand sedge, two common invasives found across the state.
The Nope’s Island Conservation Association owns about 40% of the land on the barrier beach. The conservation association prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was a passive conservation organization, but in recent years, led by Sands, who serves as president, the organization has begun putting together written plans to manage the land, and seeking state permits to begin taking some of the invasives out.
The pandemic was the inflection point, said Sands; the conservation association saw large numbers of people driving on the beach and over the vegetation, tearing up the dunegrass that keeps the beach in place.
“Driving across a piece of vegetation just once around here can kill it,” Sands said. “But we made the best of it.”
Driving on the sand trail requires a permit from the Coastal Resources Management Council, and a vehicle with four-wheel drive. Despite plenty of signage that doesn’t stop people from getting stuck on the trail and having to pay to have their vehicle towed out, Sands noted.
New fencing, meant to obstruct vehicles’ direct access to the Westerly barrier beach, is new to the Quonochontaug Sand Trail. Members of the Nope’s Island Conservation Association also installed small wooden slats to help hold the dunes in place. (Rob Smith/ecoRI News)
The pull-off sections, circled by the fencing and marked with a red pole, are designed for places where off-roaders have already killed the dune grass. The end of the sand trail has the road’s only turnaround spot.
Sands said he also installed signage at the access points to the beach they would prefer people to use. Walking over vegetation can kill it, he said, and bare spots at the beach side of the dunes can create openings for invasives to work their way in. The beach side is fairly free of sand sedge, and is more likely to wash away due to coastal storms and erosion.
Sand sedge is a notorious culprit, as it it outgrows American dunegrass with ease once it takes root, although those roots are not as deep as the native dunegrasses. Roots are vital for holding sand dunes in place, especially during nor’easters and other intense coastal storms that could, quite literally, wash the barrier beach straight into the pond behind it.
In the past, the association’s efforts have come under fire from shoreline advocates who said the work will limit the public’s access to the shore. The barrier beach is in a contentious area; the Spring Avenue Extension right of way, opposed by the Weekapaug Fire District, is in the area just before the sand trail begins.
“We don’t have a problem with people accessing the beach,” Sands said. “We just ask you to help us maintain it.”
The association applied to CRMC for two permits last year, one for the upland work for fencing and signage and another wetlands permit to remove the phragmites infestation that clogs much of the Quonochontaug Pond side of the peninsula.
The permit for the upland work was approved in March, and the wetlands work permit was approved in August. Sands lamented the long turnaround time from the state; both permits took a full year before the agency approved them.
The phragmite removal will take a lot longer than the sand sedge or other invasives. The association has a five-year plan to remove it, primarily because it will require aligning all the different property owners on the peninsula. Removing one patch on a property next year will accomplish nothing if other nearby infestations aren’t also eliminated.
“If we were out here a year ago with the permit,” Sands said, “we wouldn’t have so much more phragmites as we do now, we’d have been able to remove it before it spread.”
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