Maine students plant 20,000 grass stalks to restore storm-damaged dunes

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In March 2026, University of New England students and local volunteers planted 20,000 stalks of dune grass across 20,000 square feet of Biddeford Pool beach to repair damage caused by severe storms in 2024. The initiative, facilitated by the Biddeford Pool Conservation Trust, serves as both a restoration project and a research site for Professor Will Kochtitzky’s GIS course. Students are testing varying planting densities and utilizing anemometers, drones, and monitoring buoys to analyze wind erosion and sand accumulation patterns along the 1,200-foot stretch of coastline.

Consequences

The ongoing collection of environmental data is expected to inform future dune management strategies by identifying the most effective methods for sand trapping and coastal reinforcement. The continued involvement of students and community members suggests a sustained, collaborative approach to mitigating the vulnerability of Maine’s coastal ecosystems to future extreme weather events.

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