Measuring state of Maine beaches

Southern Maine volunteer monitors at work
Southern Maine Volunteer Beach Profile Monitoring Program members, from left, Bruce Bjork, Judy Spiller and John Lillibridge, working on Wells Beach in December 2017. Photo by Dave Cleaveland, Maine Imaging

Measuring state of Maine beaches

Southern Maine volunteer monitors at work

Before 1999, state and federal officials had no way to track the impact of storms on individual beaches. There are 200 miles of sandy beach within Maine’s nearly 3,500-mile coastline — too much for one or two people to cover adequately.

That’s where the Southern Maine Volunteer Beach Profile Monitoring Program comes in. Trained citizens measure the shape or “profile” of beaches from York to Scarborough every month, providing an indicator of seasonal, annual, and long-term erosion and other changes.

Kristen Grant, an associate with Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension, worked with Sea Grant-funded researchers to initiate the program. It has grown to include 121 volunteers, including seasonal and year-round coastal property owners and several groups of students, including the sixth-grade class at Loranger Middle School in Old Orchard Beach.

Profilers use a method developed in 1961 by oceanographer K.O. Emery. They measure a cross-section of the beach starting at a benchmark at the top of a dune, or seawall, measuring the height of the beach relative to the horizon at 3-meter intervals and continuing to the low waterline.

They enter the measurements into an online database where they can be viewed, graphed and downloaded by others, including Stephen Dickson with the Maine Geological Survey.

Dickson has analyzed the beach profile data and showed how beaches recover from storms.

“The 2007 (Patriots’ Day) storm was a great example of erosion,” he says. “There were tree stumps exposed on Higgins and Gooch’s beaches, but we were able to show that the beach came back over a couple of years.”

A low point for Maine beaches came in 2010, when regional ocean and atmospheric conditions led to an anomaly of sea level conditions nearly one foot higher than some winter storm seasons. Dickson says it was like an experiment for the future. Erosion was dramatic, similar to the damage in 2007.

“Without the profiling data, we would not have known that higher sea levels would have such an instantaneous effect on beaches. We couldn’t have predicted such a fast beach response,” he says, noting the value of the data grows over time.

“Beach profiling is a great reason to go to the beach 12 months of the year, but also make a small contribution to documenting the effects of the ocean on our sand beaches.” Judy Spiller

“The longer we continue the program, the more valuable the information we have is for understanding beaches.”

State regulatory authorities and coastal towns use the beach-profiling data to inform decisions about managing beaches and siting development.

Where data have shown that beaches are growing or accreting, coastal development has been permitted to expand. In other cases, indications of erosion have helped target beaches for sand additions or nourishment.

Heather (Heinze) Hill, whose graduate research evaluated the volunteer program and used data to study storm effects, found that erosion tended to be worse on developed beaches, which also took longer to recover from storms.

For volunteers, measuring beaches provides a way to connect to the environment.

“Blue sky, ice crystals on the dune grass, 24 degrees, 25 mile per hour winds, wind chill 8 degrees,” says Bruce Bjork, who retired in 2014 after a career in corporate finance and felt it was time to give back. “I love the ocean and I’m lucky to live close by.”

“It’s a great way to monitor the beach we love,” says John Lillibridge, a retired satellite oceanographer, reflecting on the crisp December day on the beach with other volunteers.  “The ice-covered dune grass was a real bonus.”

“Beach profiling is a great reason to go to the beach 12 months of the year, but also make a small contribution to documenting the effects of the ocean on our sand beaches,” says volunteer Judy Spiller.

Profiles in Wells and Ogunquit show the beaches there are relatively stable, with some sand buildup in recent years. However, Dickson cautions that over the long term, Maine beaches seem to be losing sand.

In 2012, Grant was contacted by John Cannon at the National Weather Service, who wanted a network of volunteers who could be activated in advance of a storm that might cause beach erosion, which could be as often as six times a year.

“The longer we continue the program, the more valuable the information we have is for understanding beaches.”

NWS coastal forecasts included wave splash-over, flooding and “hot-spot” locations for potential erosion, but they didn’t have a solid way of verifying whether the predictions were right.

How high were the waves? Did they reach the dunes? Did they affect property? Was the forecast correct?

Waves affect beaches all year; sand constantly moves back and forth between the beach and the sea. Winter storm waves are big — 15 to 30 feet — and erode beaches quickly. Late spring is typically when the beach profile shape is lean, with little sand on the upper portion of the beach after a season of winter storms. In summer, waves are smaller — 5 feet — but more frequent, leading to beach growth or sand accretion.

“The longer we continue the program, the more valuable the information we have is for understanding beaches.” Stephen Dickson

The Storm Team data show the state of a beach immediately before and after a storm, helping NWS calibrate its models, and refine predictions of damage if another storm were to hit the coast.

For example, the Blizzard of 1978 hit a coastline where dunes and other protections had been washed away by a previous storm, worsening the damage.

“Any additional information is helpful. I know it’s challenging out there in the middle of winter, out in the elements with your clipboard in the wind and the snow,” says Cannon, who measures the beach near his home in Saco.

“The first year we had lots of storms and significant erosion. Then it got quiet, at least in terms of battering waves.”

With waves of 15 feet and a 2-foot surge on top of a “King Tide,” the Jan. 4, 2018 storm tide almost broke the record Blizzard of ’78 water level. Fortunately, the storm moved too quickly to form large, battering waves. In terms of beach erosion, it was a “near miss,” says Dickson.

With Grant’s help, the program’s model has been replicated in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, California and the Yucatan Region of Mexico. Grant manages the program with the help of a part-time volunteer and data coordinator, a position that is funded jointly with and based at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Additional support comes from Maine Geological Survey, Maine Coastal Program, and annual contributions from participating towns that value the program enough to provide support as part of their annual budgets.

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