From SF Recreation and Park Department:
Rec. and Park joined dedicated volunteers and key environmental organizations to kick off a sand dune replanting project at Ocean Beach recently. The collaborative effort aims to restore the health of the beach’s vital dune ecosystem, enhance biodiversity, and protect native species.
The sand dune replanting project is also a testament to the power of community involvement, as some 100 volunteers helped replant native grass, including beach wildrye along dunes near the intersection of Judah Street and Great Highway. The newly planted grass, surrounded by temporary fencing, will help stabilize the dunes to prevent further erosion and restore the health of the beach.
The initiative was made possible thanks to a robust partnership with the National Park Service, the California Academy of Sciences, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, the Surfrider Foundation and Friends of Ocean Beach Park.
The replanting project falls in line with environmental restoration efforts outlined in the $1 million grant provided to Rec and Park by the California State Coastal Conservancy Board in November to analyze and address sea level rise, improve dune habitat and provide access to Ocean Beach along the Great Highway from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard. The project also aligns with the California Coastal Commission’s permit to approve the Great Highway’s transformation into full-time two-mile park, which also identified dune restoration goals.
The newly planted dune grass will need one year to establish and two years to propagate. During this time, the public is asked to be mindful of the new plantings. Signage will be posted to protect the area.
Learn more here: https://sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2073
Categories: Press Release
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Glad to see this finally happening. Hopefully, priority will be given to the large bald area at Noriega street, followed by Lawton and Judah streets (which now need planting due to overzealous plowing of those entrances by DPW last year). The new plantings will need to be roped off to prevent trampling. Crissy field’s effective fencing and path system could be the template for this project. If done properly, this could shield the road from drifting sand and provide habitat for native critters.
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Where are people to park their cars when going to this newly created park at the beach? Will Park and Rec be building a parking lot for all the cars that drive to the beach? With beach lots only from Balboa to Lincoln and a small lot at Sloat, where will people be able to park without disturbing the neighborhood in front of peoples homes? The majority of people from other parts of the city drive to the beach. If you think this is not so, why are the beach parking lots full on warm days? Why are people circling the beach neighborhoods looking for parking if this in not a problem. Perhaps make either south or northbound lanes a parking lot. Will there be ADA access at every intersection accessing the park that I think is required by law? The dunes are a mess, but why?? Why did Park and Rec let people trample and ruin the dunes since the days of COVID. Why did Supervisor Engardio promote events on the asphalt of the highway and not encourage people to destroy the dunes? Kids on cardboard sliding down the dunes with no discouragement from Park and Rec, Supervisor Engardio or the event promoters? Why have there been no signs saying stay off the dunes like in other beach recreation areas? All public cries of the dunes have been ignored till now. Obviously, nobody know what they are doing at the expense of the taxpayers.
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Thank you for telling the truth. I contacted Joel before the 2023 Halloween beach event. I asked him to please tell people to stay off the dunes. He said, “I can’t do that. They have been going on the dunes for too long.” I replied, “But you are the supervisor! They will listen to you.” He did nothing to stop the destruction of the dunes.This guy is afraid to do anything that the bike cult would disapprove of. Profiles in courage NOT.
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Engardio’s corrupt carpetbagging political career should be buried there.
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This is the height of hypocrisy. Recreation and Parks Department and Friends of Great Highway Park are patting themselves on the back for their plans to replant the beach grass on the dunes West of the Great Highway. For five long years, since 2020, Recreation and Parks has done nothing to keep people visiting the park romping all over the dunes and destroying the vegetation the beach grass, and in the median strip, the ice plant. Kids running and playing scooting around on cardboard sleds, dogs running around, kids on bicycles, over 5 years completely destroyed the plantings. Reck and Park did nothing to stop this destruction.
In 2023 just before the Halloween party on the upper Great Highway, I contacted Joel Enguardio and ask him to please tell the attendees to stay off the dunes and the median. He said, ” oh I can’t do that. They’ve been playing on the dunes for too long, and I can’t get them to stop.” I told him, “You’re the supervisor! They’ll listen to you.” He did nothing and again hundreds of people were frolicking all over the dunes kicking sand trampling the vegetation, and adding to its destruction.
It’s quite rich that the prop K crowd and Joel keep saying that this is going to help the environment, when in fact the actions of the pedestrians in the bicycle riders over the last 5 years have created the destruction of the dunes. I’ve lived here for 40 years and I remember watching the crew planting the beach grass in 1989. The first planting failed and the grass died. So then they had to do it again and this time it was successful. And then in 2020 all that hard work was just egregiously destroyed.
The hypocrisy of people saying that closing the highway is going to be good for the environment is apparent. The environment in the sunset where people live and breathe the air is going to be grossly affected by automobile exhaust, especially the people who live on Lincoln Way and on the lower Great Highway. The danger to children and adults, especially disabled and frail seniors from another 14,000 cars a day traveling through the Sunset streets will be a disaster.
So plant your beach grass and crow about to the public. But YOU destroyed the plants in the first place. No kudos to you!
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They’ve literally planned to pour cement for a “stage” for commercialized concerts where they were pretending to care about the Snowy Plover habitat. All of Engardio’s BS claims about “environmental” concern went right out the window. They do not care. They realize they are liars and do not care. Only money talks.
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