The Fight to Save California’s Coast

0:04 -The beaches in Oceanside are super important to the individuals that live here.

0:09 It's a part of their culture.

0:11 Most people have been in the water,

0:13 and a lot of them surf on a daily to weekly basis.

0:17 They're also raising their kids in that same style to enjoy the ocean.

0:22 It's our most beloved piece of Oceanside.

0:25 -A lot of people assume that beaches are natural,

0:28 but, especially in Southern California,

0:30 we are trying to control the beaches, maintain them, keep them around.

0:36 If you've lived here your whole life, you've seen very lush, wide beaches,

0:42 but in one or two generations,

0:44 we've seen a dramatic change in the beaches, a dramatic loss.

0:47 We haven't been able to keep pace with the rate of erosion.

0:51 Climate change, sea level rise are

0:53 a definite threat to the community of Oceanside.

0:56 That's why the city has been investing in trying

0:59 to adapt the coastline and get it ready for these conditions.

1:03 -It's hard to walk here because these rocks are brand new to the area.

1:09 Five years ago, we never had rocks like this on the beach.

1:13 I have to come from a point of always safety.

1:18 Has the ocean remained safe to teach surfing?

1:21 Yes.

1:22 Now, has changes in the sand, in how far the tide comes up,

1:28 how far the tide goes out, have those looked different over time?

1:31 Absolutely.

1:34 -In Southern California,

1:35 we have this loss of sediment that's getting to our coastline.

1:39 That really has a big effect

1:41 on the natural sand restoration that happens on beaches.

1:45 In Santa Ana River watershed, for instance,

1:48 in Orange County, that's all been flood-controlled.

1:51 It's all concrete lines.

1:52 That means your river system is not eroding anymore.

1:55 It's not gathering sediment and eroding on the banks.

2:00 Basically, what's happening is there's not

2:02 enough sediment traveling through the watercourse out

2:04 into the literal cell or the currents that flow around in the ocean.

2:09 That's not allowing for sandbar development,

2:12 which diminishes surfing and a lot of other things,

2:16 but it also diminishes that capability

2:18 for naturally beaches to restore themselves.

2:21 -What would the shoreline look like without a beach?

2:24 -If you'd like to see what it looks like, you can go down to South Oceanside.

2:28 Without a beach, what we have is a fixed shoreline that is lots of revetment,

2:34 essentially riprap revetment, which is large boulders that are placed.

2:37 The whole purpose is just to protect the home or the infrastructure behind it.

2:43 The more and more erosion that we see,

2:46 the more we see those types of ad hoc protection mechanisms,

2:50 throwing riprap against a piece of infrastructure to protect it.

2:54 That's really not what we're trying to do.

2:56 We're trying to be more proactive and thoughtful about it.

2:59 -If you even flail off to the side or just

3:02 jump in, it's all a part of the process.

3:05 over.

3:05 People want sand.

3:06 [chuckles] People want the sand.

3:08 I think it's the softness, the welcome-mat aspect of it,

3:13 the fact that it's sand and you're at a beach and you expect sand.

3:16 That's huge just to not have access to all of this and to not

3:21 have part of the world closed off to you that's right in your backyard.

3:26 -In Oceanside, we're trying to use

3:28 many different coastal management tools to restore

3:30 all the beaches on our 3.75 miles of coastline that we own.

3:35 To the north of the pier, where we have sustained beaches,

3:37 we're trying to utilize the sand that we still have,

3:41 and we're trying to build up the back beach with sand dunes.

3:46 In Southern California, sand dunes are not like the East Coast dunes.

3:49 They're about 2 to 3 feet high.

3:52 What's interesting about the use of sand dunes in coastal resilience

3:55 is that they can rise faster than the seas are rising.

4:00 It's a really simple, cost-effective,

4:03 nature-based solution to sea-level rise, to combating climate change.

4:09 What Oceanside is doing right now is the coastal sand dune restoration project.

4:15 We're doing about 10 different plots,

4:18 totally 1 acre of coastal dune restoration using simply just

4:23 sand fencing and some native vegetation that's native to sand dunes.

4:28 It's a really low-budget,

4:30 natural solution to building resilience on the coastline

4:33 rather than a big engineering project.

4:35 -Can we use that little bit that they're bending over the pole?

4:38 -These are some seeds of native plants that we are putting here.

4:43 We have three species.

4:44 The common name for these plants is sand verbena

4:48 and the beach bar that are the important species for sand growth.

4:54 When the vegetation starts to grow,

4:57 they help accumulate sand, and then they grow together.

5:01 -Essentially, nature takes its course after this.

5:04 -Exactly.

5:04 It's because that's called nature-based solutions.

5:07 We are passively helping rebuild the dunes or restart

5:13 the dunes that are here in 1920, 1930.

5:19 -My concern partly is the beauty of it.

5:23 I don't think they're very attractive,

5:25 but also I don't know how effective it's going to be.

5:28 My other concern is I think there might be people

5:32 around that are going to just destroy these fences at night.

5:35 Having this place for 30 years and being a taxpayer here,

5:39 I just don't think it's a good use of money as far as protecting the sand.

5:48 -The number one thing I would like to happen with the issue of sand retention

5:53 and the difference in the tidal waters is everyone

5:57 coming together to understand that we have different opinions,

6:00 but we all love the ocean.

6:02 We're all on the same team there.

6:05 -What Oceanside is now trying to do is this project called Rebeach,

6:09 which includes sand nourishment,

6:11 but it also includes the construction of an artificial reef

6:15 that will dampen that wave energy in that location and allow

6:19 some of those erosive forces to stay away from the shoreline

6:23 where we're trying to put the sand back to.

6:25 The waves break on the outside reef on the rock,

6:28 and then they come into the shoreline with a little less wave energy,

6:31 so a little less energy, a little less of that erosive force.

6:34 We expect there to be more sand

6:37 retention with the placement of this artificial reef.

6:40 What that'll do is give Oceansiders at least 30 years of sandy

6:45 spaces here in areas where it's really desired to have a sandy beach.

6:50 -Thanks for watching.

6:51 If you liked this story, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more.

6:55 Stick around for the next video.

6:57 I think you're going to love it.