Popham Beach, Maine: an Example of Engineering Activity That Saved Beach Property Without Harming the Beach

Geomorphology 199 (2013) 171–178

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Geomorphology

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Popham Beach, Maine: An example of engineering activity that saved beach property without harming the beach

Joseph T. Kelley

University of Maine, Department of Earth Sciences, Orono, ME 04469-5790, United States article info abstract

Article history: Beach and property erosion on coasts is a widespread and chronic problem. Historical approaches to this Received 4 May 2012 issue, including seawalls and sand replenishment, are often inappropriate or too expensive. In Maine, seawalls Received in revised form 26 April 2013 were banned in 1983 and replenishment is too costly to employ. Replacement of storm-damaged buildings is Accepted 1 May 2013 also not allowed, and a precedent case on Popham Beach, Maine required that the owner remove an unpermitted Available online 23 May 2013 building from a site where an earlier structure was damaged. When the most popular park in Maine, Popham Beach State Park, experienced inlet associated erosion that threatened park infrastructure (a bathhouse), tempo- Keywords: Beach scraping rary measures were all that the law allowed. Because it was clear that the inlet channel causing the erosion would Popham Beach eventually change course, the state opted to erect a temporary seawall with fallen trees at the site. This may or Beach erosion may not have slowed the erosion temporarily, but reassured the public that “something was being done”. Seawalls Once a storm cut a new tidal inlet channel and closed off the old one, tidal water still entered the former channel and continued to threaten the bathhouse. To ultimately save the property, beach scraping was employed. Sand was scraped from the lower beach to construct a sand berm that deﬂected the tidal current away from the endan- gered property. This action created enough time for natural processes to drive the remains of the former spit onto the beach and widen it signiﬁcantly. Whereas many examples of engineering practices exist that endanger in- stead of saving beaches, this example is one of an appropriate engineering effort to rescue unwisely located beach-front property. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction popular state park alongside a community of 19th century summer vacation cottages. The storms and legal battles that impacted this In recent decades, American society has moved away from armoring beach in the 1970s and 1980s led Maine to introduce a sand dune law, eroding shorelines with seawalls towards other approaches that impact the first ordinance in the United States banning seawalls and requiring the shoreline less and, to a degree, mimic natural processes. Although property owners to remove buildings damaged by more than 50% sand replenishment is the most important and widespread alternative by storms (Massey, 1984; Kelley et al., 1989; NRPA, 2012). This law to seawalls, it is very costly and temporary (Leonard et al., 1990; Lentz withstood a legal challenge all the way to the Maine Supreme Court in and Hapke, 2011). On a more local scale, efforts to protect beachfront the 1980s, which upheld the right of the State to protect its beaches property include beach scraping and temporary protective structures. without paying compensation for taking of property. Beach scraping involves bulldozing sand from the lower to the upper Recently, apparently natural changes in the location of a small beach (Wells and McNinch, 1991; Kratzmann and Hapke, 2012), but tidal inlet on the southern boundary of the Popham Beach State Park not actually adding new material to the system. Temporary structures have threatened park infrastructure and challenged the state to abide vary from Christmas tree mounds, hay bales (O'Connor et al., 2010)to by its own rules even when they risk significant use of one of its most various forms of sand-filled geotubes. The latter are often described as popular parks. Clearly a large public good exists in maintaining access “temporary” and “harmless” protective structures by their advocates, to a popular state beach, but the example of using banned engineering but they act like seawalls in the face of wave attack, and are often only practices to do so creates a situation that is difficult to reconcile with temporary because they are ultimately destroyed by storms (McQuarrie itspastpolicies. and Pilkey, 1998). The history of storms and shoreline changes at Popham Beach, and Popham Beach, Maine is part of the largest adjoining set of beaches the subsequent reaction of society to those changes, illuminates the in northern New England (Fig. 1). Sourced by the largest river in Maine, challenges people face in trying to live with natural geomorphic the Kennebec (Fenster et al., 2001), Popham Beach hosts an extremely changes and still enjoy coastal lifestyles, which most users expect and some demand. Herein, the geological setting of Popham Beach is described and what is understood of the coastal processes that formed E-mail address: [email protected]. and maintain this popular coastal location. Then the historical context

Fig. 1. Popham Beach is located in the Indented Shoreline compartment, within the box labeled Fig. 2 (modiﬁed from Kelley, 1987). for the creation of a “Sand Dune Law” in Maine is presented. This is an Kelley et al., 2010). Contemporary sea level has risen about 2 mm/yr unusual law in that it promotes living with rising sea level and natural since early in the 20th (NOAA, 2012). changes in a state with relatively few beaches and a small population Popham Beach is located in the indented shoreline coastal com- of beach recreationalists. Finally, the recent dilemma that confronted partment (Figs. 1 and 2), and at the end of a 20 km-long peninsula. the state is described, as is the novel solution devised to respond to The adjacent Kennebec River is the largest in Maine with a mean this situation. annual discharge of 280 m3/s (Fenster et al., 2001). Tides in the study area are semidiurnal and have a 2.6 m mean range. Winds are 2. Geological background and setting dominantly from the north-northwest in fall and winter, but summer swells and wind are from the southeast–southwest. Because of the 2.1. Location sheltering effects of nearby shoals and islands, typical waves reaching the beach are less than 0.6 m (FitzGerald et al., 2000). Extratropical The coast of Maine is 3478 miles long and is framed by Paleozoic storms occur several times each winter, with the largest storm waves igneous and metamorphic rocks (Osberg et al., 1985). The resulting from the northeast and east (Hill et al., 2004) and capable of developing geologic structure forms four coastal compartments of varying orienta- 3 m waves at the beach (FitzGerald et al., 2000). tion and possessing distinctly different coastal environments (Fig. 1) (Kelley et al., 1995; Kelley, 2004). Cliffs of bedrock dominate much of 2.2. Regional sand budget the coast with sand beaches comprising only 2% of the coast, or about 100 km, the smallest percentage of sandy coastline of any state in the At its mouth, the narrow, bedrock conﬁned channel of the Kennebec United States (Ringold and Clark, 1980). Many beaches in the state are River may occupy a new post-glacial location as a result of glacial drain- gravel, with sand beaches only common in the southern region and at age pattern derangement. During spring freshets, the river drives its salt the mouth of the largest river in the State, the Kennebec (Fig. 1). wedge onto the inner continental shelf and actively exports sand and Despite its passive continental margin setting, Maine does not mud (Fenster et al., 2001). When sand exits the river mouth, some possess Coastal Plain sediments (Cretaceous and younger), a distinctly travels directly seaward onto the inner shelf, whereas some sand and different setting from most of the US East Coast. Glaciation removed water diverges and follows a path between Pond and Wood Islands these materials, and left behind numerous outcrops of till. During de- (Figs. 2 and 3)(FitzGerald et al., 2000). This sand encounters incoming glaciation, isostatic depression of the land allowed sea level to drown waves, leading to deposition of a large bar (outer bar) seaward of the coastal region to a depth of about 75 m (Kelley et al., 2010). Hunnewell Beach between Wood Island and Fox Island (Fig. 2). Glacial-marine, muddy sediment blanketed this area and commonly Whereas sand is exported by the Kennebec River, the volume of overlies till and bedrock outcrops in most coastal embayments. Sea this sand contribution is not known (Fenster et al., 2001). In addition, level fell to about 60 m below present by 12,500 B.P. and subsequently a sand and gravel deposit exists seaward of the river mouth, and rose to the present level at an irregular rate (Barnhardt et al., 1997; extends to the lowstand position of sea level, about 10 km from the J.T. Kelley / Geomorphology 199 (2013) 171–178 173

Fig. 2. Detailed map of Popham Beach with place names mentioned in the text (modiﬁed from Fenster and FitzGerald, 1996). modern coast (Barnhardt et al., 1997; Kelley et al., 2003). This ocean waves regularly break (Fig. 2)(FitzGerald et al., 2000). Sand “paleodelta” deposit includes >330 × 109 m3 of sand (Kelley et al., from this bar feeds into smaller bar complexes that ultimately weld to 2003), some of which is presumed to reach the coast and beaches to Hunnewell and Popham Beaches. Signiﬁcant amounts of sand also the north and south of Popham (Reid Beach and Seawall Beach, occur on the extension of Hunnewell Beach alongside the Kennebec respectively), although no sand budget has ever detailed the relative River and extend seaward as an intertidal tombolo to Wood Island contributions. Whereas the sand on Popham Beach is likely sourced (Fig. 2). Another prominent tombolo connects to Fox Island. To the from the modern Kennebec River and its offshore lowstand paleodelta, west of Fox Island, the shifting ebb tidal delta of the Morse River com- sand may spend time in several other local reservoirs either before or prises another sand reservoir for the system. Finally, still farther to the after deposition on the beach. Pond Island Shoal contains a very large west, Seawall Beach represents a distinct sand system, but one that is amount of sand, probably mostly derived from the Kennebec River. connected to Popham Beach despite the intervening rock islands and Between Pond and Fox Islands, an “outer bar” deposit occurs where shoals (Fig. 2). Though the past few decades of research have slowly

Fig. 3. Shoreline changes and inferred nearshore circulation (arrows) at the mouth of the Kennebec River (modiﬁed from FitzGerald et al., 2000). The site of the Hall property is indicated by a circle. 174 J.T. Kelley / Geomorphology 199 (2013) 171–178 documented these connections (FitzGerald et al., 2000; Fenster et al., up to 200,000 m3 of sand derived from the outer bar (Fig. 3) 2001; Buynevich and FitzGerald, 2003), no sand budget has been devel- (FitzGerald et al., 2000). oped to quantitatively link these reservoirs through temporally and spatially variable nearshore processes. 3.2. Societal response to Popham Beach shoreline changes

3. Results By the time of the erosional phase of Hunnewell Beach in the 1970s, many private cottages were built (Fig. 5A). Some were protected by a 3.1. Shoreline changes at Popham Beach seawall, but that structure engendered local opposition because it projected out onto the beach at high tide and prevented passage by Owing to the complexity of its sand sources and reservoirs, the strollers on the beach. In the middle 1970s, storms threatened and shorelines of the Popham Beach region have changed dramatically destroyed 15 properties (4 others were moved) at Hunnewell Beach over time (Fig. 3)(Nelson, 1979). In one of the earliest well surveyed (Fig. 5A), and led to a public discussion on shoreline armoring (Austin, maps available (1856), the shoreline at Hunnewell Beach is shown in 1976; Barringer and Ten Broeck, 1978). The State of Maine took a strong an extreme landward position, whereas the shoreline at what is now position to oppose seawalls at Hunnewell Beach because they were the State Park is much farther to the sea. By 1942, Hunnewell Beach viewed as a possible threat to the State Park beach. As a result, many had accreted significantly, although there was a small recession at of the properties at Hunnewell were destroyed or moved (Massey, the State Park location. In 1953, the State Park beach had eroded dra- 1984). matically, including loss of part of the maritime forest, along with less In the winter of 1978, Maine experienced several large storms, in- erosion at Hunnewell Beach. For many years after 1953, the erosion of cluding the “storm of record” on February 8, and recorded $47 million the maritime forest at the State Park and subsequent growth of sand in property damage along its shoreline. A visiting panel of experts dunes were important landmarks in the history of shoreline change in pointed out that seawalls did not save many of the properties the park (Fig. 4)(Nelson, 1979). By the late 1970s, Hunnewell Beach “protected” by these structures, although the walls did interfere had gone into another significant recessional phase, despite beach with public recreation (Barringer and Ten Broeck, 1978). The walls growth at the State Park. Both areas experienced sand accretion into were overtopped, knocked down or undercut at the time they were the 1990s (Figs. 3 and 4). most needed. They ridiculed the value of seawalls to protect property, Smaller changes also occurred on Seawall Beach and along the and in 1979, the Maine Legislature passed a law precluding construc- beach flanking the Kennebec River, but were generally not as dramat- tion that “unreasonably interfered with the storage or movement of ic. Some of the shoreline changes along stretches of Popham Beach sand” on beaches (Public Law, 1979). They also precluded building appear directly related to changes in adjacent areas. Most striking structures that were “unreasonable flood hazards” to themselves or are the inverse accretion/erosion phases at Hunnewell and State their neighbors. Though this law seemed strong, “unreasonable” was Park Beaches (Goldschmidt et al., 1991). All the beaches in the area not defined, and houses and seawalls continued to be built on the coast. change on a multi-decadal time frame, but not perfectly synchro- In 1983, the State developed a set of standards to define what was nously in terms of erosion/accretion (FitzGerald et al., 2000). One unreasonable. Among other practices, those rules precluded the amplifier of shoreline change in the system is the Morse River ebb building of seawalls, because they interfered with the storage and tidal delta. This undeveloped inlet is controlled by the shifting loca- movement of sand. The rules also precluded rebuilding houses tion of its main ebb channel over time. When the channel debouches destroyed by 50% or more by a coastal storm as flood hazards to into the sea in a more westerly position (towards Seawall Beach), themselves. One of the first cases that involved the new “sand dune sand accretes at the State Park. When the channel migrates to the rules” to go to court was from Popham Beach (Massey, 1984). east, it erodes into the State Park maritime forest, although accompa- The Hall family, whose house on Hunnewell Beach was destroyed nying changes in Seawall or Hunnewell Beaches do not always occur. in the 1970s, sought an after-the-fact permit in 1983 for a cottage Hunnewell Beach is most impacted by the welding of sand bars, with they had just constructed without a permit (Fig. 5B). They had lived

Fig. 4. Aerial view of Popham Beach State Park in September, 1995. The striking boundary between the sand dunes and maritime forest is stippled. This was the location of the 1953 shoreline. J.T. Kelley / Geomorphology 199 (2013) 171–178 175

Following this precedent, hundreds of other permits to build in frontal dune areas were also denied. It became the policy of the State to retreat from hazards posed by coastal storms and rising sea level (Kelley et al., 1989). Because this policy originated in the Maine Geological Survey and Bureau of Parks and Recreation, each of which was located in the Maine Department of Conservation, it became strongly associated with that department of state government.

3.3. Twenty-ﬁrst century erosion of the State Park

Since 1953, the Morse River ebb channel stayed west of the State Park maritime forest (Fig. 4). In the late 1990s the channel, which is constricted by bedrock at its throat, made a right angle turn toward the northeast, but then veered to the southeast, avoiding the park (Fig. 6A). The second turn appears to have been inﬂuenced by the

Fig. 5. Hunnewell Beach and the site of the Hall cottage: A) a 1976 photo from the Maine Geological Survey shows many houses on Hunnewell Beach as they neared destruction. The Hall cottage is just beyond the seawall to the left; B) the new Hall cottage in May, 1983 rests on an eroded dune scarp less than 10 m from the high water mark. The low-tide terrace is visible in the foreground; C) the new Hall cottage in May, 1984 is seen next to the ruins of the former house.

seasonally in a trailer on the site since the destruction of their house, and built the new structure on the ruins of the old (Fig. 5C), less than 10 m from the high water line. In hearings before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) (the environmental jury of the State for such disputes), the Hall's geological consultant argued that the beach had periodically eroded and accreted, and that it was presently entering an accretional phase that would last another century. The State argued that past changes were episodic, not periodic, and unpredictable. The proximity of the new cottage to the high tide line indicated that another single storm could destroy the building (Fig. 5B). The Halls were initially denied a permit by the BEP, and instructed to demolish the house. They sued to the Maine Supreme Court, claiming their property was “taken” without fair compensation, but were denied again, and compelled to tear down the house Fig. 6. GoogleEarth images of Popham Beach: A) 1997, note that arrow points to view (Massey, 1984; Kelley et al., 1989). from Fig. 7B, C; B) 2003, note arrow points to new channel; C). 176 J.T. Kelley / Geomorphology 199 (2013) 171–178 presence of a 50 cm thick peat deposit that resisted erosion on the In the spring of 2009, the Maine Parks and Recreation Department east bank of the channel (Fig. 7A). Significant sand bars blocked a began to build a bathhouse on the southwest corner of the parking lot shorter, more southerly path of the channel to the sea. at Popham Beach (Fig. 8A, circle) (Dickson, 2010). Convenience clearly In 2003, a new branch of the Morse River ebb channel bypassed or dictated this unfortunate decision, though the on-going erosion was cut through the peat deposit and began cutting into the State Park without historical precedent. Earlier views from the 1953 shoreline dune field (Fig. 6B, arrow). This was a new path that offered little resis- scarp created undeserved confidence that the wide dune field would tance to the stream. By 2007 (Fig. 6C), this new channel had completely protect the structure (Fig. 7B). As the dune erosion approached the eroded the western dune field of the State Park (>150 m wide) and new bathhouse (Fig. 7C), an effort was made to get permission from was removing the edge of the maritime forest. This erosion was appar- the owner/manager of the Seawall Beach spit to bring equipment ently without precedent and certainly exceeded the 1953 erosion limit. over to breach the spit. This was of no avail, as Seawall Beach was This new pathway was abetted by reorganization of the sand bars of the privately managed on the principle of no artificial interference in the ebb tidal delta into a new 0.4 km-long subaerial spit attached to a undeveloped beach. In a desperate effort to save the bathhouse in 0.4 km-long submerged component growing eastward from Seawall December, 2009, the Parks Department roped many of the fallen Beach. This spit blocked the tidal creek from a shorter path to the sea Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) trees together and secured them to standing and directed it towards the State Park beach and Fox Island tombolo. trees on the top of the dune as a “treewall” (Fig. 9A) (Dickson, 2010). This is legal under the current sand dune regulations in Maine as a temporary structure. In this configuration, the bundle of trees dissi- pated wave and current energy in an attempt to reduce the rate of dune erosion. In March 2010, a late winter northeast storm finally broke through the Seawall Beach spit and created a channel more than 100 m wide (Fig. 8A) (Dickson, 2011). This new channel provided a more efficient route to the sea than the channel eroding the park bathhouse area. Although the old channel past the eroding State Park beach still existed, it was reasonable to assume that it would close as the new barrier island migrated into its location (Dickson, 2011). A smaller spit was similarly breached in 1986, and the resulting sand bar migrated onshore and contributed up to 100,000 m3 to the State Park beach (Goldschmidtetal.,1991).

Fig. 7. Photographs of the erosion site: A) Morse River channel looking northwest. Arrows point to the peat outcrop that resisted erosion by the channel; B) View from near the present bathhouse, October, 1995, showing the extent of dunes. The near island is Fox Island, the Fig. 8. GoogleEarth images of Popham Beach: A) 2010; B) 2011. Circled area near distant one is Sequin Island. Arrow in Fig. 6A shows the direction of view; C) Photograph parking lot marks the location of the bathhouse. 1 locates the areas or ﬁll used to from same approximate position as Fig. 7B. Taken in December, 2010, it shows the extent block off the old channel; 2 marks the site where a new opening to the channel was of erosion of the dunes. carved and the location from which Fig. 9B was taken. J.T. Kelley / Geomorphology 199 (2013) 171–178 177

sand from the spit to cut a new opening for the lagoon that formed in the old channel and to create an artiﬁcial sand barrier that deﬂected the tidal channel that threatened the bathhouse (Figs. 9A, B and 10) and (Fig. 9B). In all, about 10,000 m3 of sand were moved, including sand banked up against the bathhouse (Dickson, 2012). With the former channel of the Morse River contained, it now appears that the large sand bar will continue to migrate onto the beach.

4. Discussion

Historically, one of the ﬁrst actions of property owners experienc- ing beach erosion was to erect a seawall (Nordstrom, 2000). Devel- oped beaches in Maine were lined with seawalls. With time, the public became aware of the access and other issues created by seawalls, and the 1978 storm demonstrated that seawalls were generally ineffective when most needed. At Hunnewell Beach, the removal of buildings, either damaged by a storm or at risk for damage, was a rallying call for the banning of seawalls in the state (Austin, 1976). The state construction of a bathhouse at Popham Beach State Park was permitted because it was in a back dune setting and, possibly when planned, a great distance from the sea (Figs. 4 and 7B). The rapidity of shoreline change in the park was surprising, despite the rapid shoreline changes observed in the past. The Hall cottage, which was removed because of a perceived threat of erosion in the 1980s (Fig. 5B), later experienced extreme accretion (Fig. 9C), although the State did not relax its standards on reconstruction. That site is once again eroding and the Hall cottage would be at risk once again had it been allowed to remain. Thus, when State property was in danger because of shoreline changes at Popham Beach, precedents from past decisions, as well as the existing ban on seawalls, required an examination of how to cope with beach erosion in a benign manner. The original response, to breach the Seawall Beach spit as it was still forming, proved impossible not because of the law, but for lack

Fig. 9. Photographs of shoreline change at Popham Beach State Park: A) the “treewall” used by the park to reduce the rate of erosion of the maritime forest on 12-29-2009. The dune scarp is 2–3 m high; B) The bathhouse (arrow) with scraped beach and recently blocked Morse River tidal channel; C) The Hall property (arrow) in November, 2001. Compare with Figs. 5B and 7D; D) The Hall property on 12-3-2011. Arrow points to the same site as Fig. 9C.

During 2011, the new Morse River channel sealed off the former channel past the park, and significant amounts of sand began to fill the channel (Fig. 8B). The eastern mouth of the old channel remained open, however, and continued to experience tidal exchange. Unfortu- nately for the State Park infrastructure, the old channel made a sharp bend in front of the bathhouse and the cut bank of the tidal channel continued to erode in the direction of the bathhouse. By the fall of 2011, the bathhouse was less than 10 m from the tidal channel, and it was clear that erosion would claim it in the coming winter (Dickson, 2012). To rescue the building, the Parks and Recreation Department obtained a permit to scrape the beach in front of the bathhouse to Fig. 10. Popham Beach State park and the new location of the Morse River channel, protect the structure. Although beach scraping is very uncommon in April 30, 2012. The new storm-opened inlet is in the lower foreground whereas the Maine, it is allowed because it does not involve removing sand from older tidal channel is deflected away from the bathhouse near the top of the image the beach system. In December 2011, construction equipment scraped (arrow points to artificial sand barrier). 178 J.T. Kelley / Geomorphology 199 (2013) 171–178 of permission from the owner. Once a storm provided a new channel Barnhardt, W.A., Belknap, D.F., Kelley, J.T., 1997. Sequence stratigraphy of submerged river-mouth deposits in the northwestern Gulf of Maine: responses to relative for the Morse River, it appeared that the threat to the bathhouse was sea-level changes. Geological Society of America Bulletin 109, 612–630. over. The continuing tidal action in the former channel and its geom- Barringer, R., Ten Broeck, C.W., 1978. Policy Recommendations for Reducing Storm etry, which focused currents on the area of the bathhouse, however, Damages. Maine State Planning Office, Augusta, ME (33 pp.). Buynevich, I., FitzGerald, D.M., 2003. Textural and compositional variation of recent posed a new surprise that required immediate action. When the sediments along a paraglacial, estuarine coastline, Maine, USA. Estuarine, Coastal State developed its sand dune law, homeowners won permission to and Shelf Science 56, 139–153. perform actions on beaches that were temporary, hence “reasonable”. Cooper, J.A.G., McKenna, J., 2008. Working with natural processes: the challenge for – In southern Maine at Camp Ellis Beach, the erection of geotubes and coastal protection strategies. The Geographical Journal 174, 315 331. Dickson, S.M., 2010. Migration of the Morse River in to backdunes at popham Beach Jersey Barriers (movable concrete walls) on an eroding beach is allowed State park, Phippsburg, ME. http://maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/marine/ because the Army Corps of Engineers is developing a long-term plan to sites/jan10.htm. inhibit the erosion there (Kelley and Brothers, 2009). Beach scraping is Dickson, S.M., 2011. Setting the state for a course change at Popham Beach, Phippsburg. “ http://maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/marine/sites/feb11.htm. permitted at the request of homeowners, but it is considered a last Dickson, S.M., 2012. Beach scraping at Popham Beach State Park, Phippsburg Maine. resort” action taken before a storm and does not permanently change http://maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/marine/sites/feb12.htm. the volume of sand in a beach. Experience elsewhere suggests that Fenster, M.S., FitzGerald, D.M., 1996. Morphodynamics, stratigraphy and sediment dynamics patterns of the Kennebec River estuary. Sedimentary Geology 107, 99–120. beach scraping is a non-destructive, albeit temporary method to save Fenster, M., FitzGerald, D.M., Kelley, J.T., Belknap, D.F., Buynevich, I.V., Dickson, S.M., property on a beach (Kana and Svetlichney, 1982). If beach scraping 2001. Net ebb sediment transport in a rockbound, mesotidal estuary during has ever previously occurred in Maine, it was a rare event. spring-freshet conditions: Kennebec River, Maine, U.S.A. Geological Society of America Bulletin 113, 1522–1531. By steepening the local beach face, beach scraping can lead to FitzGerald, D.M., Buynevich, I.Y., Fenster, M.S., McKinlay, P.A., 2000. Sand dynamics at the rapid removal of the moved sand (Wells and McNinch, 1991) through mouth of a rock-bound, tide-dominated estuary. Sedimentary Geology 131, 25–49. wave or eolian processes. Beach scraping does offer temporary relief Goldschmidt, P.M., FitzGerald, D.M., Kink, L.K., 1991. Processes affecting shoreline changes at Morse River Inlet, central Maine coast. Shore and Beach 59, 33–40. in the face of a pending erosional event (typically a storm). It is not Hill, H.W., Kelley, J.T., Belknap, D.F., Dickson, S.M., 2004. The effects of storms and considered a solution to an erosion problem, simply an interim mea- storm-generated currents on sand beaches in Southern Maine, USA. Marine Geology sure that provides more time for natural processes or people to act. In 210, 149–168. fi fi this instance, scraping sand to erect a barrier to divert the tidal creek Kana, T.W., Svetlichney, M., 1982. Arti cial manipulation of beach pro les. Coastal Engineering Proceedings 18, 903–922. from away from the bathhouse was acknowledged as temporary, but Kelley, J.T., 1987. An inventory of environments and classification of Maine's estuarine it allowed enough time for the sand on the remainder of the tidal coastline. In: Rosen, P., FitzGerald, D. (Eds.), A Treatise on Glaciated Coastlines. – delta to weld to the beach and alleviate the problem. In this regard, Academic Press, San Diego, CA, pp. 151 176. Kelley, J.T., 2004. Coastal bluffs of New England. In: Hampton, M.A., Griggs, G.B. (Eds.), it provided a unique solution to an unusual problem. Coastal Cliff Erosion: Status and Trends: US Geological Survey Professional Paper, At Popham Beach, the use of wood derived from erosion of the 1693, pp. 95–106 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1693/). maritime forest to construct a wall was clearly a temporary action. Kelley, J.T., Brothers, L., 2009. Camp Ellis, ME: a small beach-front community with a big problem/jetty. In: Kelley, J.T., Pilkey, O.H., Cooper, J.A.G. (Eds.), America's Most Qualitative observations suggest that the retreat of the dunes behind Vulnerable Shorelines: Geological Society of America Special Paper, 460, pp. 1–20. the trees was similar to that at either end of the wall (Fig. 9A), but it Kelley, J.T., Kelley, A.R., Pilkey, O., 1989. Living with the Maine Coast. Duke University was psychologically reassuring for the State to do something. This is Press (174 pp.). Kelley, J.T., Kelley, A.R., Apollonio, S., 1995. Landforms of the Gulf of Maine. In: similar to the placement of hay bales in front of eroding dunes on Conkling, P. (Ed.), From Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy: An Environmental Atlas of Five Finger Strand, Republic of Ireland. They had little physical influ- the Gulf of Maine. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 19–39. ence, but appear to have calmed the public and helped preclude a Kelley, J.T., Dickson, S.M., Belknap, D.F., Barnhardt, W.A., Barber, D.C., 2003. Distribution and volume of sand bodies on the rocky, glaciated inner continental shelf of the more rash effort to construct a stone wall (O'Connor et al., 2010). In northwestern Gulf of Maine. Journal of Coastal Research 19, 41–56. the end, the beach scraping that diverted the channel away from Kelley, J.T., Belknap, D.F., Claesson, S., 2010. Drowned coastal deposits with associated the bathhouse saved the day. Although a temporary solution, it may archeological remains from a sea-level “slowstand”: northwestern Gulf of Maine, – be decades before erosion again threatens the bathhouse and allowed USA. Geology 38, 695 698. Kratzmann, M.G., Hapke, C.J., 2012. Quantifying anthropogenically driven morphologic the state to set a good example of complying with its own rules. changes on a barrier island: Fire Island National Seashore, New York. Journal of Few beach-erosion problems are temporary, but some are. In this Coastal Research 28, 76–88. fl example from Maine, use of the temporary solutions of beach scrap- Lentz, E.A., Hapke, C.J., 2011. Geologic framework in uences on the geomorphology of an anthropogenically modified barrier island: assessment of dune/beach changes ing and biological barriers proved useful to save public property with- at Fire Island, New York. Geomorphology 126, 82–96. out resorting to permanent armor or costly replenishment. In a sense Leonard, L.A., Dixon, K.L., Pilkey, O.H., 1990. A comparison of beach replenishment of U.S. this was an example of “working with natural processes” (Cooper and Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coast. Journal of Coastal Research (Special Issue 6), 127–140. Massey, K., 1984. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Coastal Society, Atlantic McKenna, 2008), because local sand was used to divert a tidal creek City, N.J., October 14–17 (25 pp.). away from a structure of interest to the State. McQuarrie, M.E., Pilkey, O.P., 1998. Evaluation of alternative or non-traditional shoreline stabilization devices. Journal of Coastal Research (Special Issue 26), 269–272. Nelson, B.W., 1979. Shoreline Changes and Physiography of Maine's Sandy Coastal 5. Conclusions Beaches. Unpublished Master's Thesis University of Maine, Orono, ME (302 pp.). NOAA, 2012. http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends.shtml. Beach scraping can be an effective and appropriate tool to combat Nordstrom, K., 2000. Beaches and Dunes of Developed Coasts. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.(343 pp.). temporary beach erosion, but only when it addresses the primary NRPA, 2012. Natural Resources Protection Act, Title 38, Maine Revised Statues Annotated reason for the erosion. The total volume of sand on the beach is not (M.R.S.A.). Chapter 355, Section 341-D (1-B) and 480-A to 480-Z www.Maine.gov/ affected, and natural processes are free to act on the material after the sos/cec/rules/06/096/096c355.doc (last visited on December 6, 2012). action is taken. Use of eroded trees was less effective as a temporary O'Connor, M.C., Cooper, J.A.G., McKenna, J., Jackson, D.W.T., 2010. Shoreline management in a policy vacuum: a local authority perspective. Ocean & Coastal Management 53, method to reduce the rate of erosion than as a mechanism to retain 769–778. calmness in a difficult situation. The use of naturally produced material Osberg, P., Hussey, A., Boone, G., 1985. Bedrock Geologic Map of Maine. Maine Geological to provide protection for a threatened area also provides landowners Survey, Augusta, ME, 1/500,000. Public Law, 1979. Maine Revised Statutes Annotated 38. Sections 471–478 . the satisfaction of taking action to address a problem. Ringold, P., Clark, J., 1980. The Coastal Almanac. Freeman, San Francisco, CA. Wells, J.T., McNinch, J., 1991. Beach scraping in North Carolina with special reference to References its effectiveness during Hurricane Hugo. Journal of Coastal Research (Special Issue 8), 249–261.

Austin, P., 1976. The beaches are sinking, goodbye beaches. Maine Times 8, 1–5.