All right, everybody. Thank you for coming. My name is Kevin Ham from Surbed. We're handling the public engagement on this project. And this is the uh 6:00 coastal processes 101 workshop for the Westport barrier beach management plan. Um couple a couple quick housekeeping items before we get
started. Um I'm going to leave everybody muted. If if you have a question, you know, uh raise your hand or type in the chat and then at the end we're going to little have a little more open session for questions. Um, we are recording the meeting. Uh, so if you have to jump early or or uh or you want to review it later, just just reach out. We can share
the recording. Um, if you're I don't see anybody on a phone, so I'm not going to go over the phone instructions. If you need to unmute yourself or raise your hand, those are all the controls at the bottom of your screen. Um, if you have any questions, again, if you text support, just click on the chat button, type into the chat. I'll be watching that and we'll uh get you situated.
Otherwise, I'm going to pass it off to Michael Burrus from the town of Westport. Thank you. Hi everyone. As Kevin said, I'm Michael. I'm the town planner here in Westport. Gonna just kick this off with a quick background on the project. So, if you
all remember last year, um, in the winter, there were a handful of southeasterly storms that had generated a pretty significant amount of overwash and caused some significant damages to the town's barrier beaches and the roads. um particularly East Beach, there
was a lot of coverage of that. Um so following those storms, the select board had asked the planning board to search for some grant funds to develop strategies to mitigate and respond to these types of storm events. So we put our heads together and um applied for a
couple different grants. One or we put our heads together with conservation commission and we applied for a couple different grants. So um the one was through the coastal zone management and the other was through the municipal vulnerability program. And fortunately
we were selected for both awards. So here we are today. Um we put this those awards out to an RFP and contracted with Woods Hole Group to develop these beach management plans um for the the town's barrier beaches
particularly where there are town owned roads. Um, so you'll note that the three that we're looking at in this project is each be East Beach, Beach Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue because those are all barrier beaches where the town um has
roads. And so our last public meeting for this was in March. We were listening to community members talk about their experiences experiences at each of these three barrier beaches. And so that brings us to tonight. Um, what we're
going to be doing here is learning more about the science behind the coastal processes at these barrier beaches and how that impacts each of the three study areas at East Beach, Beach Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue. So, with that, Connor, I'll I'll turn it over to you and the
team at Woodsole Group to start the presentation. >> Great. Thanks so much, Michael. And I'll just share my screen. Make sure you can all see that. Does that look all right? >> Okay, great. Thanks. So, >> looks good.
>> Hi, everybody. Uh, yeah, like Michael said, my name is Connor Austin. I'm a coastal scientist with Woods Hole Group. We're a coastal science and engineering firm. I'm the project manager for uh from the technical side of this project and we're working with Serpid who organized this meeting uh who is leading
the outreach and education. So, thanks so much to that for them being here. Like Michael said, we're doing a coastal processes 101 presentation. So, I see a lot of familiar names here of those of you who were able to join us for our kickoff meeting uh where we talked about
the specifics of each site, what this project is about. This is a barrier beach management plan. I'll go into a little bit about that, but tonight's presentation is really uh sort of setting the stage for, you know, why the conditions are what they are at these
three beaches. Um we've seen erosion, we've seen overwash, there's a change in sediment and um sediment types and sediment dynamics and why those things are happening. We just kind of want to talk about really the fundamentals of coastal science here. Uh so this is a
thrill for me to be honest. This is what I, you know, studied um in my education and I'm just really happy to be able to talk about just what is happening at these beaches and why what these processes are so that we can then use that to look at how do we manage them
appropriately in the face of these um changes and then how do we you know start to envision our beaches in the long term. I'll take questions uh primarily at the end uh though uh if you want to put some in the chat if they're super relevant to a certain slide. Kevin and Joe will be
monitoring the chat and they can they can jump in and we can answer a couple questions then. But um in terms of discussion and back and forth, let's uh save that for the second half of this presentation um between 6:30 7 o'clock tonight. Like uh like Michael said, we're led by
the town of Westport. We're also um joined here by Coastal Zone Management and the MVP program, both funders of this program. Um Woodsole Group and Serpent Tonight's agenda, I'm going to go over quickly the umbrella. What are we working underneath the barrier beach
management plan? Uh, but most of the time will be taken talking about coastal processes. I'll also end with a project timeline and further outreach events. There are many outreach events. So, for those of you who can't stay until the end, just want to put on your radar. Um,
Saturday, May 31st, we are planning to be on the beach, East Beach, Beach, A, Atlantic A, in succession throughout the day. There will be a flyer notice that goes out since you've all registered here. Um, you will be notified. Um, we
want to be out there on the beach and walk it with you and talk about these coastal processes more and talk about your experiences um, with storms and sea level rise. So, real quickly, the barrier beach management plan. This is kind of the overarching project which uh this
presentation is working underneath. And there are many components going on. You may have seen us out on the beach there in February and March where we were starting to establish the existing conditions. We've done sediment sampling. We've done wetland resource delineation. We've done uh a survey of
roads and structures. and Serpent has flown a drone and and taken a survey of topography and taken great aerial imagery. We're using all of that information as inputs to examine the vulnerability of this these reaches to
erosion, to flooding, to storms. We're also simultaneously doing desktop based studies. We're reading through all the past reports that have gone um you know gone into the planning of Westport uh and starting to bring those together into one cohesive narrative about the
management today of these beaches and what this manage the management of these beaches could look like in the near future. Lastly, we're evaluating a range of adaptation strategies primarily related to bringing in sediment. you know, there's erosion essentially, you know,
short to make the story short at these beaches. And um one response to erosion is to bring in sediment. So, we're looking at what it means to bring in sediment. What does that cost? What does that do for these beaches? Is it worth
our effort to do so? Um all the while we're performing community feedback and outreach. You can contact me anytime. Um and you have Serped Serpid's uh contact through this registration as well. So um we're looking to get out in the community and talk to you as much as
possible. The outcomes of this project will be the establishment of existing conditions. So these wetland resource delineations will help serve the town and the public as you perhaps go forward with any sorts of applications for a project you want to implement. the sediment analysis,
topographic survey. Similarly, they all can set the baseline for projects which may occur in the future. Secondly, we will have a draft beach management plan. We don't expect to uh finalize that in this phase. This project ends on June 30th. That would be a very quick
turnaround. There needs to be presentations with the select board. There needs to be an adoption by the community as a whole. So, we are preparing a draft beach management plan at this stage, but that will be um you know, ideally permitted in the future in
2025 or early 2026. And then lastly, we're prepare preparing data to support kind of the mid to long-term planning of these beaches. All right, so into the coastal processes 101. So, we keep using this term barrier
beach. And what does that mean? A barrier beach is called a barrier because it is uh serving as a barrier to the inlands, serving primarily as a barrier to inland waterways. So, here we're pictured on the right hand side looking at East Beach and how we have
the ocean to the left and we have the let to the right. So, this beach is a barrier to the salt marshes and the waterways of the Le and then greater West uh Westport River. Each barrier beach is made up of various different resources which interact with the ocean and the waves they serve
habitat. Uh the beach face for instance we have intertidal zones which daily are washed over with tides and waves. We have the dune network which uh is often built a top that beach. Um dunes are built through processes of overwash and
wind. Over the word overwash means that a storm wave has um over top the beach. It's pushing sand. It's pushing cobbles and it's pushing that up onto the beach. Water is spilling um over the top of this barrier in the spine and flowing potentially into the salt marshes on the
backside. Dunes can also form from wind. So when especially when we have finer sands that can be picked up easily by winds or if we have strong winds like a hurricane um wind, we can pick up material and it can blow from the uh near shore and it can blow up onto the
beach and it's captured by whatever might be up there. You know in in many cases in a natural dune that is the vegetation, beach grass. Um in some cases there might be sand fencing if different management strategies have been used. But those processes of
overwash and windblown sand are very natural processes as a barrier beach um evolves in response to the climate around it. Barrier beaches are incredibly important. That word barrier is an indicator that
things inland of this beach are benefiting from a pro that the protective element that it provides. Barrier beaches serve as a storm buffer between hurricanes and the storm waves and and the storm surge that would otherwise move up different river
systems like the Westport River and potentially flood inland locations and low-lying areas adjacent um waterways and rivers. So there's a real strong storm damage prevention and flood control aspect to barrier beaches. If
they were not here, we would have a much different looking community in the town of Westport. They also provide erosion control. So the dunes themselves tend to be resilient in the face of storms and waves. Those root systems grow very
deep, six feet, eight feet, nine feet deep and and wide, and they can help to secure sediment and hold uh this beach in place. Other materials like cobble and gravel, they are also resilient to these storm waves. Um, and I'll talk a
little bit about that later. But all to say that those those different resources and those different habitats are um providing an erosion control to all of the things that we might want to have on the barrier beach. In this case, we're looking at Atlantic A on the left hand
side, which um without the dune and without the beach would easily be undermined and eroded away by by a storm event. The beaches also provide really valuable wildlife habitat, Westport's beaches in
particular. Um, we've done a consultation with the natural heritage and endangered species program. Uh, it's known that there are piping clovers and lease turns in the area and these are very sensitive species. They are rare in population and Westport is one safe
haven for them. Um, it's not just Atlantic A and Beach A. Uh, East Beach also has some of these populations of birds. Cherry Web also uh is a popular bird area, although that is outside of the the project area.
And lastly, I think the thing that, you know, most of us can relate to immediately is the recreation that is provided by these beaches. We have beach clubs all all across the town of Westport because of the value that is seen in these beaches. So, um, they're bringing value to us to, uh, from many
different sides and as a result, we really want to pay close attention to them and how these beaches might be changing and how we might be able to protect them. Westport's barrier beaches are really unique and they're geological kind of wonders in my mind. They they formed
over thousands of years. This is a process since the glacial uh period 10 12 17,000 years ago when glaciers once overttopped uh the town of Westport and pushed all the way out to the Elizabeth Islands and Cape Cod and Nantucket and
Martha's Vineyard. Um but since that time glaciers has have retreated and they've left behind large volumes of sand and sediment. That's what built Martha's Vineyard in the first place for instance. Um and also as those glaciers have retreated that water has melted and
it has flowed into the ocean and the ocean has been rising ever since. There was a period of rapid rise and we are now currently in a period of more gentle rise geologically speaking but um there is sea level rise occurring uh along our
coastline. That sediment that was brought by glaciers is what's been reworked to create these barrier beaches. So, if you dug deeper and deeper underneath um East Beach, for instance, you would just find more and more sediment until you eventually hit bo bedrock. I'm not even
sure how many tens of feet or even hundred of feet you might have to go until you reach bedrock. Um there are massive amounts of sediment, but we are also experienc a uh we're like I guess the word is a starvation of sediment.
These systems are starved of sediment. Um, we've built armoring along the coast. We have sea level has risen above um above the subtitle area and it's harder to move sand from the offshore
onto these beaches. Um, we've really anthropogenically and just naturally lost some of the sediment that might naturally build these beaches and sustain them. And the result of that is slow erosion. So that picture on the right hand side
is the process of sediment transport that can cause erosion and changes in our beaches. This is driven primar primarily by wave action. So waves will come from the direction that a storm may be coming from and those waves will push up the beach and then they will run back
down the beach. But each time if there's a dominant direction that the waves are coming in, they will push the sand up and to the side and then it'll come back down and the next wave will come and it'll push the sand up the beach and back down the beach and it'll slowly
zigzag its way along the coastline moving in a general along shore direction. So this long shore direction is our predominant direction of sediment transport. Areas like the Nubble, for instance, the predominant direction of sediment transport is from the west to
the east. That sand has slowly moved out of the uplands or from the near shore and it's built up along the barrier and it's moved until it reached the outcrop of the nubble and it globbed onto it like a rock like a rock out at sea
holding on tight. East Beach and Horsene Neck Beach uh are also great examples of how long shore currents and long shore sediment transport can shape these beaches. Horsene Neck Beach, the sediment transport direction is from the east and
to the west and so sand will move from Gooseberry Island Causeway predominantly towards the inlet of Westport River. On the other side of Gooseberry Island, there's East Beach and sediment moves in the opposite direction and that's a result of different circulation cells
which are occurring in the nearshore areas. That's sort of a starting geological and then looking at the big picture of predominant sediment transport directions, looking at how these beaches are shaped. But there are much more frequent changes you know on a seasonal
basis. There are uh dramatic changes which can occur at these beaches. The summer beach profile is one where the beaches tend to be built out wider and and gentler. Uh that's a process that occurs during more quiescent wave
periods. So um we have uh less stormy um stormy climate conditions and that is able to push sand from the nearshore. It picks up sand bars for instance and starts to move it into the shore and it slowly builds up our beaches over time.
So you know the widest a beach like Atlantic A may be in a year is at the end of August or the start of September. Now, hurricanes can disrupt that that process. And there's always anomalies to
these different um trends that we see, but in general, you know, at the end of the summer, you'll have you'll like you are likely to have your widest beach. On the other hand of that is during the winter we get often erosive conditions. There are stronger storms during the
winter. We often get higher tides during the winter and these tend to be erosive when the waves can crash right on the edge of the shoreline. They can scour and they can pull it off under you know the rip tide underneath and deposit that as sand bars offshore. That's what these
two pictures are showing on the right hand side. We have the summer beach which is a bit high and dry and the the winter beach which is eroded and the nearshore sand bars are formed. This is a natural process which kind of cycles over itself and and can be seen
each year. But um coupled with the a long shore transport and a lack of sediment in the region as a whole um we are likely to see erosion slowly over time at our beaches. So you know looking a little bit more
finally again at uh the processes which can occur. There are our large scale long-term trends which which we can measure. Um but then there's rapid uh you know very momentary events which can dramatically change the beaches. So
storms are the culprit for this. Um, oftentimes a hurricane or a southeaster or um even a noraster can can drive waves that are and water levels that are high and damaging. Uh, and they might cause overwash events. And so that's what this picture here on the right is
showing. You can see on the top picture, this is our barrier beach in East Beach for instance with the ocean on the left hand side, the beach um, in that yellow, the upper area, the barrier island. Um, that's where the dunes are. And then you
have the inland marshes and estuaries. When a storm comes in, the water levels rise very high, sometimes called a storm surge or storm tide. And the waves are able to break closer and closer to shore. And they're able to push sediment
and overwash uh overwash our roads and overwash our dunes and and break through. That overwash is pushing sediment inland and upland. And once the storm recedes, we're left with sand or cobble that is now in a new
location. And this process, you know, when it happens once is one where we, you know, in today's uh behavior, we go in and we go to our roads and we plow that sediment back onto the beach, for instance, or um, you know, just try to
try to return to normal. But over the long scale, this process is moving in one direction. These barriers are trying to migrate inland and upland. They're trying to find an equilibration with the ocean essentially. So the ocean is
pushing them on them and they are dynamic and they're responding and they the the beaches themselves are moving inland as a result. There's one instance uh at East Beach where overwash can cause even more
dramatic change where an inlet can break open. So the let was once connected to um the to Buzzard's Bay through uh an inlet which broke open uh at East Beach that then filled in over time through
these sediment transport processes that we're talking about. But again, it's something that could could happen in the future. A look at what those storms can look like on our beaches. just have a a small timeline here. There has been a history of of dramatic storms, especially in the
1900s um at at uh East Beach and Westport in general. The first one that is most notable since we had developed along the coastline at that time is the 1939 Great New England hurricane. That hurricane came from the south and it
damaged every town that's south facing, frankly. So, Westport has extreme um examples of of the fallout of hurricane 1938. Fair Haven does as well. Matapoet, New Bedford, um Balmouth, Barnstable,
all of these towns facing the south, the Cape and the Islands of course um were really took a big beating by the 1930 39 hurricane. There's also the hurricane Carol of
1994, 1954. Hurricane Bob, which many of you may remember in 1991, supertorrm Sandy in 2012, although that was a storm that hurricane which went to New York City, it still caused extreme water levels and high winds which still
battered our coastline. Um there are others like blizzard Juno in 2015, the storms of 2018, the norers of Riley in March and the January storm as well, Hurricane Enri in in 2021. And then just
like Michael had had suggest uh said at the start, the 2024 storm January 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th where we had very high water levels, very large waves that were damaging the coastline in Westport. The result is a dramatically changing uh
beach. I think East Beach is really the poster child of this. Looking at 1890 to 2024, the conditions are incredibly different. There used to be homes lining the shoreline. Um there used to be a you
know, yeah, a a a larger community. Um today in 2024, the vast majority of these homes have been removed. the roadway is pushing a little bit further inland. The beaches are more narrow. There's less sand. There's more cobble.
Um, and you the conditions are just very different. One thing I want to talk a bit about is the impact of sea level rise on our shorelines. So, like I said, geologically, sea level rise has been happening for thousands of years as the glaciers melted. Um, beginning about 10
or 12,000 years ago, uh, sea level rise started to rapidly increase. Since we've been monitoring sea level rise and measuring and beginning in about 1930 to 1940 in Woods Hole, this is a figure of what data from Woods Hole and National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration. uh we've measured about 1 foot of sea level rise in the past century and so that is uh a tangible change in the shoreline. One foot doesn't sound like much but when you have one foot on top of a storm
surge or um one foot on an area where you are accessing the water and you you know you've built your dock or your harbor um right at the water line, one foot can make a big difference. And sea level rise has a cascading
impact on the morphology of our coastlines. So like I used that word earlier, equilibrium. Beaches find equilibrium with the ocean. You know, if we weren't here, if we weren't touching it, if there was uh in an unlimited
amount of sediment, beaches would be able to shift forward and backward and up and down in response to storms, in response to long long-term trends. And what beaches are trying to do with sea level rise is to retreat, to move inland and upland. They are self- sustaining if
given the space to do so, these barrier beaches. Um, however, because we've planted our flag, you know, tried to hold the line on the edge of this beach, um, we are starting to see this retreat and with respect to where we're
standing. These two pictures are both from East Beach, but the case can be said about Atlantic Gavin, the novel as well. There is a very mixed sediment um dynamic around the Westport beaches. Some cases you might find fine sand or medium to
coarse sand. Um sometimes you might find patches of gravel and in some places such as that picture on the bottom right hand side, you'll find almost purely a gravel cobble beach. There's a real different response of
these different grain sizes to storms and to waves and to currents. Sand is always shifting. It's lightweight. It can be blown inland. It's what forms those dunes most effectively. It's very important for that reason. Uh but it can
also be washed offshore more easily. So storm waves are stripping the finer sediment away from our beaches um relatively easily. They do deposit that sediment as nearshore sand bars and nearshore stand bars are a valuable part
of our environment. They help to reduce wave energy, but visibly and recreationally, our beaches become smaller and and shorter. Cobble is uh responds differently in the face of storm waves. Cobble is heavier.
It tends to stick around. When storm waves come and push cobble, instead of scouring and pulling it offshore, those waves wash up and they push the cobble up and you can actually form storm BMS in response. So your beaches tend to
move kind of upland and inland in response to waves when they're made of cobble and gravel. Additionally, cobble and gravel tends to dissipate wave energy because there's higher friction. There's more permeability. The waves can wash up and they can filter through the
cracks and holes in between each cobble. So, I've alluded to some of the erosion that we've seen. I'm trying to keep this presentation to um really what just the processes broadly are that are occurring. But, you know, it's hard to just uh deny that we want to stay where
we are. We want to see these beaches. We want to recreate these beaches and we want to protect them. So just a quick note about different ways that you know you and your beach you you can help your beach. Dune nourishment is one of those ways. So bringing in sediment compatible
sediment to nourish your dunes and build up their elevation, build up their volume is a great way to enhance natural resources and gain the benefits that we've talked about dunes providing. that storm buffer um that way to to combat
erosion. So, do nourishment is one um appropriate way to address erosion. I just want to note that, you know, going out going to, you know, Home Depot for instance, getting a bag of sand and and pouring it on a dune is not
necessarily the most effective way to nourish a dune. There's really um certain slopes to be designed, certain elevations to be um attained and different plantings and different sand fencing or different lack of
sediment types, cobble or gravel or sand or fine sand um that need to be designed to do this due nourishment. So if you're looking to do something like this, you should always talk with your local conservation commission, Chris Capone. Another way to do this is by planting
dune grass. So if there is a sandy uh sandy dune which is um has lost its plant its vegetation, planting dune grass is a great way to help to secure that sand in place. And one example of this is at Atlantic A. The Elephant Rock
Beach Club just last year planted hundreds of feet of of dune grass along their restored dune. Um the American beach grass is really the the the species that we tend to use and we place those in certain ways tend to be about a
foot apart. Um they need to be watered. They need to be maintained. Again, there's a process that is very particular to making this happen in the right way. But American beach grass is great at helping to secure our sediments and both build habitat and build resilience.
Lastly, installing sand fencing is an important way where we can capture that windblown sand and start to maybe build up a dune that uh might be lacking or might not be there at all. Sand fencing is a bit controversial. It can turn into
just debris. When a storm comes and washes around your sand fencing, it breaks it up and deposits wood and wire along the beaches. So there is a very particular way again not to um belver that point but there's a particular way
to install sand fencing to avoid it being damaged to avoid it impacting uh the sensitive bird species like the plvers and the lease turn that we we talked about this information. These are QR codes here. If you want to I'll just hold a moment. You can take your phone and use
the camera setting on your phone. If you zoom right up on these QR codes, it'll take you to a website. It'll take you to the coastal zone management website for uh fact sheets on nourishing and planting and fencing.
All right, that was about all I was looking to go over for coastal processes. So, um I hope that there's a lot of questions. I really encourage that and um would love to talk about this more with you all. But quickly, I'll go over our project timeline so you all know what the what the plan is going
forward. We kicked off this project on January 31st and used the month of February and the early parts of March to do that establishment of of baseline conditions, surveying and and walking the site and
um having that drone survey as well. Between March and April, that's when we did our desktop analysis, looking at all of the literature that is out there, starting to prepare our reports and digest the information that we learned on site. This May, we've been doing a
lot of beach management drafting. So, uh, my co-orker Justine, who will be there on the 31st, has been working primarily on beach management planning, and I've been working primarily on, um, alternatives analysis and performance modeling of largecale nourishment
projects. So I will be happy to talk about that with you all um at future events. This right now is community workshop number two. There will be a community workshop number three, workshop number four. Those will take place either at the end of June or
sometime in July. There will be uh the beachwalk on May 31st. And then there will be various tableabling events. So, if you've seen Serpent out in your community already, they were at, I believe, the Marathon or Half Marathon uh a week or two ago. So, thanks to
them. They're trying to get out on the ground and spread the word about this project. From a technical standpoint, we will be stopping on June 30th. So, we will have a draft beach management plan at that time. Uh but the project will continue in outreach mode for the month of July
and we're looking to um find ways to continue beyond that time for public engagement. This is that beachwalk the deep dive series. So, Maria Jones, who could not make it tonight, but is going to send out this
flyer afterwards, is helping us leave the helping us organize uh a beachwalk on Saturday, May 31st. So, please mark your calendar. We will be at all three beaches uh for about an hour and a half at each. And if we don't use the full hour and a half, that's okay. But we
will, you know, we'll be just we'll be around to answer any questions you have to walk up and down the beach to to talk about your experience. We're going to start with Atlantic A at 9:30. We're coordinating with Elephant Rock Beach Club and George to see if we can park in their parking lot and find a ideal
meeting place. Then we will be at the Nubble uh at 11:30. From 11:30 to 1:00, we will meet at the Town Beach, which is down Beach A um towards the end by the Nubble itself. And then there's a town beach parcel um on the seawward side of
the Nubble. And then third, we'll be at East Beach in the afternoon from 2 to 3 meeting at the end of the parking lot uh on the east end where the cobble tends to be. Additionally, we've had have a public survey. We tried to put out the word at
our first public meeting. I just want to, you know, put another plug in for that here. if you can uh complete this survey, your feedback. This is just another way that we can hear your feedback and have it recorded and um incorporated into our work. This is another QR code using the camera on your
smartphone if you have one. You can scan this QR code or you can jot down this um URL on the right hand side. I'll just hold a moment there is in case you want to get this information. these presentations though and and the
the recording will be available on the project website which I will advertise right now. So the project web page is hosted by serpent. So it's serpent.orgwmp that stands for westport barrier beach
management plan. For outreach events, you can contact Maria Jones, who's leading that organization at mjoneserpid.org. All right, and that is the conclusion of our presentation. Here's a quick plug as well for uh a CZM um tool which can be
very useful. happy to talk about it if you all have questions, but I think for the sake of time, I I want to leave about 20 minutes for discussion and I I'll stop there. >> Conor, we got a couple of questions in chat now that you're not sharing, you should be able to see them. If not, I
can I can read them out. >> Uh, thanks. Yeah, let me pull them up then. >> Connor, I wasn't getting the QR codes for the fact sheets to work, so I put the links in the chat. >> Perfect. Thank you so much, Rebecca. That's great. Okay, we'll take that note
and make sure that the um those fact sheets uh are going to be in the form of a poster that we can have out and about around town. We're also going to print out fact sheets as well. So, um if you're able to come to our sitewalks, we can have those as handouts. Um and all
this information should be ready for all of you by then. Right. Another question. from Janet Hatley. Can you give any examples of success from other communities who are aggressive in
attempts their attempts to maintain their beaches? And yes, I think one that's really um relevant today because they've just completed a beach nourishment effort is Dubury Beach Reservation. Duxbury Beach reser
reservation is out in the towns of Marshfield and Dubury. Um they have a barrier beach as well which um extends from the border of northern Duxbury and down into uh adjacent to Plymouth Harbor
and the town the Ducksberry beach reservation has been working with uh different agencies including CCM um to nourish their beaches on a in a very methodical and uh aggressive frankly uh way. So they have done a nourishment
some form of erosion control project almost every other year uh for the past many years now they're placing I think the last Rebecca honestly could could speak to this better than me but the last time that there was a nourishment effort I think was on the order of 70
75,000 cubic yards or so um which is a fairly largecale nourishment. If we're looking at a place like East Beach, there might be the need for an even greater volume of sand or cobble um place because it's so sediment starved.
Um but there is success in the state of Massachusetts to nourish beaches. >> There's also plenty of beaches that um do beach rest and other planting to help with erosion control. That is done routinely in in most communities. So
those um fact sheets that I put links to have information about the different kinds of vegetation that are appropriate in dunes. The Connor had a um a picture of of some of the root systems and how deep those can be and how those help. So
there's a lot of information available and those are used um those techniques are used very successfully in a lot of places. >> Yeah. Thanks Rebecca. And I' I'd even give a shout out to Elephant Rock Beach Club and their dune restoration that took place along Atlantic A in the past
year. That's, you know, one example of success in your own town. Okay. Um, next question is from Susan Douly. You're not addressing the cherry and web beach. Can you comment on it? Thanks. And yes, that is a a
something that is outside the scope of this project. I think as Michael put it earlier, the three beaches that we're looking at are what they have in common are that they are barrier beaches. One, um, but that two, they have public roads behind them. So, the town of Westport has an interest in maintaining their
road systems and planning their road systems for different storm and erosive events. Uh, it really plays into this beach management plan because there are different ways to manage your roadways and manage the overwash which occurs on them. And that's why these three beaches
are specifically um prioritized here. Cherry and web beach I don't have personally much experience with. So I don't have any um broad comments on it, but if you have a specific question about about the area or about Horseneck Beach in general, um
I'd be happy to respond. All right. Third, we'll just stick to the to the comments here for a second and then we can move to raising your hands. Um, from Jeff Canton, could you explain further the impact of seaw walls or other hard barriers on erosion? Where
and how did the impacts occur? So, thanks Jeff, that's a great question and um, another real fundamental coastal process as we start to develop along the edge of the shoreline. You know, traditional coastal engineering practices were often to create
revetments or seaw walls, very hard and permanent structures along beaches uh along barrier beaches specifically that can have very very negative cascading impacts. So what seaw walls are good at doing is holding a line protecting
things that are inland of them but they are completely neglecting of what is seawward of them. So a seaw wall um will hold the line where you are um but the beach in front of that seaw wall will experience more erosion, more scour because that seaw wall will reflect wave
energy. There's very little dissipation. There's almost no dissipation in a seaw wall. There's very little dissipation that occurs from a a reventment. And so that reflection of wave energy causes scour. It causes the beach volume to drop. Causes the beach elevation to
drop. And what you're left with is kind of a fortress on the edge of the water line. Additionally, upstream up coast and down coast of a seaw wall, you can have what are called end effects. So seaw walls
might hold hold the line where they are, but those who aren't um in be right behind that seaw wall will be uh impacted by edge erosion. So the seaw wall will reflect wave energy or um head it will be create a headland which
starts to focus wave energy and where their seaw wall is not present there's going to be another increase in scour and an increase in erosion. So once you start to go down the seaw wall path you almost find yourself patching every inch of coastline with another seaw wall
trying to chase this erosion as you go and the result is really a wall with with no beach. Um, seaw walls are are good for, you know, like I said, they hold the line against against storms,
but if not built high high above uh the ground surface, flooding and overt topping are still significant issues that that seaw walls can experience. So, there are different towns and different seaw walls along the Massachusetts coast that you uh might be
well aware of. Hall, Marshfield, and Duxbury. Like I said earlier, uh where seaw walls exist and those communities are incredibly vulnerable. The seaw walls are taking a beating because there's no natural resources, seawward of them, to dissipate wave energy. So
storms are hitting the seaw walls uh with their full force and they're over topping and they're flooding communities. The areas that we actually see the most FEMA um calls for uh repetitive losses are actually areas along the beaches and the barrier
beaches where seaw walls exist. Back to the previous question from C Glazer. It used to be common place to put old Christmas trees in the dunes to help anchor the movement of the sand. I remember this being done for decades along Atlantic. Have any comment on why
they prohibited that a few years ago? Um yeah, thanks. Great question. I don't actually I was not um tracking the the policy around um Christmas trees in dunes. I know that that the process that
is trying to be achieved by by Christmas trees is the process of capturing windb blown sand. And that process can be done with sand fencing. it can be done with primarily and ideally with natural vegetation. So I think that that process
while well-intentioned isn't exactly what is natural in a dune. Christmas trees don't you know aren't the foundation of our our dunes but the process of trapping and cap and sequestering sand is fundamental to our dunes. So, um I think like Rebecca said,
the CCM fact sheets that are out there, we want to try to use as many native processes as we can and planting is really the ideal um process there. >> It can also help shed a little light on that. The Christmas trees are problematic in endangered species
habitat. Um and some sand fencing has to be limited near shorebird habitat as well. What happens with the Christmas trees if it's not in shorebird habitat? They may trap sand, but when they come out in a storm, they come out in one big clump and you have a big hole rather
than vegetation that has roots associated with it. So the as part of the beach management plan that Woodsole Group is working on, they'll have some recommendations on how you balance those competing interests. >> Thank you. Great, great questions so
far. Um, please feel free folks to put it put your questions in the chat or if you want to raise your hand or just unmute yourself. We'll take any any more questions. If there's any slide that you wish you had more time to just read or if you
wanted me to go over, this is pretty technical information. So, you know, happy to talk through these You know, Constance had to leave halfway through. If she were here, she would have a question for me. I know it. I just know it.
Oh, a question from Janet Hadley. Thanks. How do you spread the word more widely to interested parties? That's great. Uh, I'll look to Kevin and Joe. Do you think you can point people to your website? Can you place those in the chat um and
help people, you know, sign up? There's a there's a way to put your email in and you will get be the first to know about events as they're coming up. Thanks, Kevin. So, there it is. Serpent.org WBBMP. And then
>> if you go there, you can see the uh sorry, if you go there, there's a big button to sign up for updates. Um, and let your friends know, you know, if you guys see our post on on Facebook or somewhere else, you know, share with your friends. If you have a party you think you think you're interested, then please let them know. Um, and if you have a place where you think we could
get some traction with uh with tableabling, you have a local spot, you know, let us know. We're happy to find those spots because you guys know them all way better than we do. So, please reach out to Maria. I'll put my I'll put her email in the chat as well as my email. Please reach out. Thanks.
Another place to look will be the town website. Oh, Michael was about to think >> I was going to say the same thing, Connor. >> So, another place you can go to is you can go to the town's website and you can subscribe to the town's news and alerts.
We will cross-ost various events um and meetings like this to that news feed. So, I'll put the link in the chat. Um but if you subscribe to that, you can also stay informed that way. Kathleen asks, "I came in late. Can I watch this recorded session?" So, Kevin,
do you mind uh commenting on how folks will be able to access the recording? >> Um, yeah, partially. I know I know Maria has a plan for that. Um, but because you signed up to be in this meeting, when the recording is is watchable, we'll send a link out to everybody. Um, so you guys will be able to find it. If if some
reason you don't see that in the next few days, uh, reach out with an email. We'll make sure we we get it to you. Rebecca's just posted in the in the chat a link to CCM guidance on Christmas trees for coastal erosion. So, thanks
for that, Rebecca. All right. Well, if no more questions, I think you folks can Oh, maybe one more. Just Michael. Michael, I'm going to hang on for another nine minutes if if anybody, you know, uh just wants to ask me a question more
personally. Um but that's the that's the gist of our presentation. So, thank you so much for being here and I hope to see you all on Saturday, May 31st at your respective beaches. Have a good night.
>> I was I was going to ask how many people were thinking of coming >> on Saturday. on Saturday we don't of well from what's whole group we'll have at least myself and Justine start but I think we'll have uh at least two as well maybe more but because we didn't want to
confuse people about this meeting and signing up for this meeting for as opposed to signing up for May 31st Maria is going to send out the um flyer for the sitewalks tomorrow so we'll start to get a headcount then
>> couple of questions Janet asked uh how do you connect to the goose the upcoming gooseberry causeway study. >> Great question. We are independent from that. So that study is ongoing at the same time. Um our project is not focused
on the Gooseberry Island Causeway. Um but I believe that there is that project is coming out with information soon. Um you know we're connected to we are in communication I mean with Buzzards Bay Coalition. So um I think you can expect
results public presentations of those results in the next month or so. Um but we are focused yeah on these three beaches and the near-term management of them. >> I can jump in on on this question too. So, um, Mark Res MueN, who is a member
of our climate resilience committee, is going to be also the head of Buzzards Bay Coalition, is going to be doing a presentation on that study um at the next climate resilience committee on May 28th, so a week from today at 5:00 p.m.
Um, that will be held in the town annex at 856 Main Road. Or, um, you can also attend virtually as well. Uh there's a meeting link on the posted agenda on the town clerk's webs web page. >> And then Bob Triman had another a very
pressing question which is what happens after June as far as next steps in management. >> Yeah, thanks Bob. That's a great question. Um so like I said we will have a draft beach management plan at the end of this project. Beach management plans are um documents which actually get
permitted. So it will have to go through the notes of intent process through the local conservation commission be adopted by the town officially and that's a process which um ideally could happen in with the momentum that we're gaining here uh within the the next year. Um,
additionally, we're hoping to submit a grant to uh, you know, hold more public presentations, select board presentations, go out to different groups that, um, different stakeholder groups and just spread the word about, you know, this project and how um, how
Westport can manage their beaches. So, none of that is funded necessarily at the moment. Uh, this is a grant application that we're scoping out at the moment, but Michael maybe have a comment as well. No, I think you covered it really well,
Connor. Thanks. >> I think another way to put it is that the management of Westport species is something Westport will be doing foreseeable future. So, I don't think even if we have a June
30th ending, you might see less of me, but I think this topic is no less important to the town after June 30th. Roger, if you uh it looks you might be trying to talk but you're muted. Are you trying to give me give me a wave if you're trying to talk and I'll I'll make sure you get unmuted here.
I'm not sure you're trying to talk to us or just to your to your partner there. >> Thank you all. Thanks for the nice notes in the chat. >> Yeah. Thanks everybody. Hopefully we see most of you at the uh on the 31st. >> Yeah. Okay. Great. I think we can wrap
up