For generations, California’s beaches have defined an entire way of life: the surf culture, the sunsets, the sense that the coast goes on forever. But there has been a natural system working quietly behind those beaches, and it has been disappearing since the Gold Rush, and most people have never heard of it.
According to a study, ‘Significant Coastal Dune Loss Challenges California's Climate Resilience and Biodiversity Goals,’ published in the journal Earth's Future by researchers at UC Santa Barbara, more than half of California's coastal sand dune systems are gone. The study found that 60% of the dunes present around 1850 have disappeared due to urban development, land-use changes and erosion. It is the first such survey ever conducted for the California coast, and one of the largest and most detailed dune inventories ever produced anywhere in the world.
The remaining dunes, less than 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) of an original 739 square kilometers (285 square miles), are more than just scenic backdrops. They trap and deliver sand to nearby beaches, protect wildlife, and act as a natural barrier to the very coastal dangers that keep California’s planners up at night.
