New dune restoration effort aims to protect Oceanside beaches

The city of Oceanside has begun a dune restoration pilot project aimed at reversing years of sand loss along the coastline and strengthening coastal resilience.

The project is underway north of the Oceanside Pier, where crews have been installing posts and fencing designed to capture windblown sand and help rebuild dunes that once naturally protected the shoreline.

“This whole area was filled with dunes. In fact, all of the harbor was a big dune system that connected to all the estuaries there,” said Jayme Timberlake, a coastal zone administrator for the city of Oceanside.

The North Oceanside Coastal Dune Restoration Pilot Project is the latest effort to address erosion that has steadily reduced beach sand for decades. According to a study from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, sand along Oceanside’s coast has been diminishing since the 1940s, when harbor projects began. While annual dredging has helped replenish some of that sand, erosion remains an ongoing issue.

Crews from the California Conservation Corps were seen hammering and drilling Wednesday as part of the installation process. The goal, advocates say, is to create conditions that allow dunes to rebuild naturally.

“The sand is blown, it hits, it hits the fences, it hits the vegetation and then it starts depositing and growing that back beach area, so you’ll get that little dune hump. There will be native plants and vegetation going in here,” said Robert Ashton, president and CEO of Save Oceanside Sand.

Ashton said restoring dunes is about more than just preserving the beach.

“A healthy beach and habitat like this is important for the health of the community,” he said.

Timberlake said northern Oceanside is one of the few areas where enough sand still exists to make dune restoration possible, thanks in part to sand placed on the beach from harbor channel dredging.

“In this area of northern Oceanside, we have sand still because we use the sand from the channel harbor dredging, and we put it on the beach here, but there’s still episodic erosion issues. There’s still chronic erosion happening here in this northern area as well,” she said.

City officials describe the project as a nature-based solution to climate change and sea-level rise. With fencing, posts and eventually native vegetation, Timberlake said the dunes can grow more quickly and provide a buffer between the ocean and developed areas.

“We really need to keep that sand on the beach where it is, when we have it so that we can keep that resilience between our homes, our infrastructure and the ocean itself,” Timberlake said.

Fenced plots have been installed from just north of the Oceanside Pier to Harbor Beach and the San Luis Rey River, part of a broader effort to protect nearly four miles of coastline.

“That’s our objective: to get all our beaches restored in a sustainable and responsible manner that restores the health and the life blood of our city,” Ashton said.

City officials said the fencing used in the pilot project could remain in place for about three years as the dunes develop.

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.