Small, but mighty
By: Bridget Macdonald
Tags: Science, Hurricane Sandy, Coastal Resilience, New Jersey, Seabeach Amaranth

“A natural rebar system, that’s how I think of it,” said Keith Rella, describing the value of seabeach amaranth on New Jersey’s beaches.

Seabeach amaranth provides the foundation for natural dune building. USFWS

That might be hard to imagine upon first glance at the small, unassuming plant, with leaves that resemble baby Swiss chard. But seabeach amaranth is more than meets the eye.

Like the steel bars used to reinforce concrete structures, this native annual provides scaffolding for small dunes to form. In areas where little else can grow, its ground-hugging clusters of tough leaves catch grains of sand picked up by the wind, and provide tension to bind them together.

“It’s an indicator of a healthy beach,” said Wendy Walsh, Endangered Species Biologist at the Service’s New Jersey Field Office. “Our mid-Atlantic beaches are a draw for tourism and recreation, but they also protect human communities from storms and provide homes for a community of specialized, native plants and animals, including several threatened and endangered species.”

That’s why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with partners to help this small-but-mighty plant return to beaches where it was once found in New Jersey, and beyond. Seabeach amaranth is native to every state from Massachusetts to South Carolina, except Connecticut. It disappeared from New Jersey and several other states in the early 1900s, and was scarce throughout its range by the end of the century, prompting its listing as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1993.

Rella, who is the Secretary to the Environmental Commission for the Township of Brick, New Jersey, can relate to a tough comeback.

Out of order: a relic of pre-Hurricane Sandy waterfront infrastructure along Barnegat Bay. Towship of Brick

Before Hurricane Sandy, his township was best known for its extensive waterfront property — more than 53 miles along Barnegat Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, the Metedeconk River, and numerous lagoons.

“After Hurricane Sandy, we were the poster child for coastal vulnerability,” he said. The township was one of the hardest hit by Sandy because it lacked a natural dune system to provide a protective buffer from the storm surge.

Since then, Brick has recovered ground. In 2017, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a multi-year beach and dune restoration project along 14 miles of Barnegat Peninsula to reduce the risks of storm damage to eight communities, including Brick Township.

Over the course of the project, contractors pumped more than 11 million cubic yards of sand onto the shores of Barnegat Peninsula to provide the raw materials for building 25-foot high dunes. So why care about some sand accumulating around the plants in front of them?

A snapshot of the massive dune rebuilding project undertaken in New Jersey by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Sandy. Township of Brick

“A lot of money was invested in reengineering those dunes,” Rella explained. “Anything we can do to protect that investment by helping the natural system recover is a good idea.”

Especially when it requires doing very little. Last summer, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance approached Brick Township with a proposal: set aside 10 percent of your beach for conservation — just a narrow strip in back where few people linger because the sand is too soft and hot — and on the remaining 90 percent, continue with beach business as usual: raking, driving, sand castles, whatever.

The township agreed to the so-called compromise beach-management plan, and in practically no time, signs of life began to appear in the strip of sand: tough green leaves in low-growing clusters, the foundation for natural beach building to begin again.

The Pioneer

Called a “pioneer” species because it’s one of the first plants that stakes a claim in sandy turf, seabeach amaranth started to run out of territory in the 20th century. Although it plays a foundational role in natural beach building, it is sensitive to artificial stabilization from beach armoring, such as seawalls and riprap. Armoring increased in step with coastal development in the 1900s, leading to the plant’s disappearance in parts of its range.

In 2000, seabeach amaranth was rediscovered in New Jersey 89 years after it was last seen in the state. In the years after its rediscovery, the state’s seabeach amaranth population fluctuated dramatically.

Wide swings in plant numbers are a normal part of this species biology, but its distribution in New Jersey was also severely limited by human activities such as beach raking and driving. The state has a handful of natural areas where the plant can thrive, but the dynamic nature of the coast means that a storm or erosion can, by chance, wipe out the population from any one area.

With no connections between natural areas — mainly due to the raking and driving — the species remained at risk of once again winking out in New Jersey. “The population was up and down, which is common for rare plant species because their habitat has not been managed properly,” explained Ryan Rebozo, Director of Conservation Science for the Pinelands Preservation Alliance.

Ryan Rebozo, right, of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance installing posts to mark set-aside strips for native beach vegetation with project partner Jay Kelly of Raritan Valley Community College. Pinelands Preservation Alliance

But scientists realized that with seabeach amaranth, proper management requires little intervention. “These are tough, hardy plants,” Rebozo said. “They just need a little space.”

In 2016, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance received funding from New Jersey Sea Grant to help implement compromise beach management plans, like the one adopted in Brick, to make space for the plant. Today 20 percent of beaches in New Jersey have set-aside strips, and seabeach amaranth has accepted the invitation.

“Last year was a banner year,” Rebozo said. “We counted 3,400 individual plants, which is three times more than in 2018, which was also a banner year.” And that’s just the seabeach amaranth that the Pinelands Preservation Alliance counted. The state-wide tally in 2019 was 14,800, a 600 percent increase from the previous year.

A sign that explains the goal of set-aside strips for visitors at a beach in Middletown Township, New Jersey. Pinelands Preservation Alliance

Seabeach amaranth also had a banner year across the New Jersey-New York bight on Long Island, where the Service’s Long Island Field Office reported more than a 400-percent increase, from 7,033 plants in 2018 to 36,564 in 2019. As in New Jersey, plants in New York are responding to protections to the upper section of beaches.

Rebozo pointed out that 48 percent of the plants his organization found were inside set-aside strips. “That demonstrates that this simple, cheap method really is effective at creating a buffer,” he said.

A buffer for the seabeach amaranth, and for other species. Several other state-listed and rare beach plants also grow in the strips, along with plants like goldenrods that provide nectar to pollinators such as monarch butterflies.

Before and after: vegetation emerges in a strip of beach that managers agreed to protect from recreational driving simply by shifting off-road vehicle corridors, not eliminating them . Pinelands Preservation Alliance

It’s also a buffer for communities. “By just leaving the back beach alone, a significant amount of sediment can accumulate in a relatively short period of time,” he said, adding, “Over time that can add up to significant savings in beach nourishment costs.”

Now with a Recovery Challenge grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance will be expanding its outreach in New Jersey to see if other townships can set find some space for this plant. Work under the new grant will complement recovery efforts by other partners, such as the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who together are working to formalize the back-beach strips in local Beach Management Plans and to fence the plants where they are at risk of trampling.

“The goal is to ensure our coast provides a corridor of habitat where the species can pop up as conditions change,” Rebozo said. “Our hope is that if we can demonstrate success, and show that there is minimal impact to recreation, it will become easier to get more communities involved.”

Once a poster child for vulnerability, Brick Township is now an example of that success.

“The science shows that a natural beach can help protect our coast,” Rella said. “I know the situation in each community is unique, but I would hope professionals in other townships would look for a reason why to do this, before looking for a reason why not.”

For more information, visit: https://www.fws.gov/northeast/njfieldoffice/endangered/amaranth.html