The following update has been made to the Coastal Resilience page.
Willard Beach Dunes
The Parks, Recreation & Waterfront department will be working with contractors to conduct beach scraping at Willard Beach, beginning the week of March 3, 2025. This project will redistribute existing sand on the beach and form a ridge or "sacrificial dunes" backed up along the dune areas as a temporary storm protection measure. This is a near-term coastal resilience effort City Council directed staff to pursue following an October 2024 presentation this past fall by Peter Slovinsky of the Maine Geological Survey.
Here's what you can expect at Willard Beach during and following the beach scraping:
- The majority of the work will take place over the course of four days.
- During the scraping, the beach will remain open. We ask you to please avoid the area(s) where bulldozers are working.
- Please keep off the newly formed dunes to help preserve them.
- Be aware that at high tide, there will be less beach, especially in spots where the beach is already narrow. Please plan your visits accordingly.
- Please note that these dunes are expected to degrade over time with wave and weather impacts. If they hold up, they will be incorporated into a broader dune plan, which may include dune grass planting in the future.
The City, with guidance from Maine Geological Survey and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, submitted a Permit By Rule from Maine Department of Environmental Protection for this project. Maine DEP issued the permit, allowing the work to go forward. Roughly $25,000 from the Parks, Recreation & Waterfront budget will fund this project.
The City Council will hold a workshop tentatively scheduled for March 18, 2025 to discuss potentially investing in the creation of a comprehensive dune management plan. We encourage you to attend. City Council meeting agendas are posted the Thursday prior to a scheduled meeting. View agendas on BoardDocs.