Along a stretch of coastline still marked by Hurricane Sandy, volunteers gather in rain or shine to restore the coastal dunes that separate the beach from the last line of houses. It’s part of a push by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) to protect Coney Island, which has one of the highest concentrations of low-income, high flood risk census districts in the city. The long-term effectiveness of projects like this, however, depends on far more than volunteer labor alone.
On a gray, cold, rainy day last April, I took the F train to the end of the line in Coney Island, followed by a bus down Mermaid Avenue to Coney Island Creek Park, passing through neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
At the end of the road, a small group of people knelt amid the dunes, separating shoots of hardy beach grass and burying them a few inches deep in the damp sand.
Khadesha Stephenson was one of the handful of students who made it out despite the drizzle, seeking something tangible in the physical act of planting. Now a freshman at CUNY Hunter College, she says that day last April strengthened her resolve and is one reason she is back for a new planting season. The project has expanded from six planting days last year to nine this year, drawing 670 volunteers, including students from 23 schools. Repeat volunteers like Stephenson are at the heart of the project.
“I used to think that no matter what I did in my personal life to be low waste, my impact on the environment was just a blip in the system,” she says. “But planting in those conditions that day changed the scope of how I think of my, and other people’s, actions in the world… We are not a blip, but a collective, a community of people who are willing to sacrifice comfort for the betterment of the world. It’s helped me realize our actions matter.”
Coastal dune ecosystem restoration is a nature-based solution that can help reduce the impact of coastal flooding and erosion, offering residents protection from the next, inevitable storm surge. For young people like Stephenson, the benefits go beyond protecting the coastline and create a tangible way to tackle climate anxiety.
But not all residents of Coney Island are convinced that more sand dunes are a good idea. Unvegetated coastal dune systems are not static. The changing winds can sometimes cause dunes to migrate into city streets, creating transportation hazards for local drivers. Locals with beachfront property worry more dunes will block ocean views.
Abby Jordan, climate education program manager at NWF, is on a mission to help her neighbors understand that the benefits of sand dunes outweigh the costs.
A survey of a recent community meeting found a 50/50 split between community members who supported the project and those who were critical of it prior to the meeting. By the end of the meeting, the number of people who said they supported the project had doubled, suggesting that public opinion around dune restoration may shift as residents learn more about how the projects work.
Jordan grew up within walking distance of the beach where the planting events take place. She graduated with a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University in 2024. Her passion for this work is fueled by her experience living through Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge and its aftermath when she was 18.
The night the storm hit, Jordan and her brother came to the beach to document the hurricane as the storm surge breached the Coney Island boardwalk and sent millions of gallons of brackish water and sewage gushing across the peninsula. By the time she got home, their house was already flooding. Within 20 minutes, water was coming in from the windows.
In the wake of the storm, Jordan found solace volunteering for stewardship projects in overlooked frontline communities like the one she grew up in.
“The beauty of nature-based solutions and doing something like planting native species is that anyone can play a part in making their own community more resilient,” she says.
NWF started the Coney Island Creek dune planting project in 2021 in collaboration with other groups including the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. NWF hopes to increase the coastal resilience of the neighborhood and give youth hands-on experience through their climate education program, Resilient Schools and Communities.
When Hurricane Sandy hit, communities along Long Beach Barrier Island, located off Long Island’s South Shore, served as a case study in the effectiveness of dunes as a protection mechanism.
Sand dunes shield coastal properties and communities from storms by acting as a physical barrier that stops the flow of water, and by absorbing the force of the waves. Beach grass contributes to an underground net-like root system that helps prevent the sand from washing and blowing away, while the leaves collect new sand that encourages new dunes to form. Even in areas that also have “gray infrastructure” such as seawalls in place, sand dunes add an extra layer of protection.
In the years leading up to the superstorm, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed dunes all along the coast of Long Beach Barrier Island. Some areas like the City of Long Beach resisted the project, fearing the dunes would ruin ocean views and reduce beach tourism. Other nearby towns, such as Lido Beach, approved it.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the Army Corps found that the places that had resisted the project sustained more damage. The protective value of sand dunes has been proven by extreme weather events in other parts of the U.S. too.
After Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008, one study modeling the value that vegetated dunes provided to residents estimated that the dunes contributed approximately $8,200 in storm protection per homeowner.
For communities like Coney Island, those protections may become increasingly important in the decades ahead.
In its 2024 report, the New York City Panel on Climate Change estimated sea levels will rise 14 to 19 inches by the 2050s, and 25 to 39 inches by the 2080s. First Street—an organization that assesses environmental risk to properties and creates risk scores used by both realtor.com and Zillow—rates 100% of properties in Coney Island at extreme risk of flooding in the next 30 years. (Update: Last December, Zillow pulled climate risk scores after complaints of lost sales.)
That’s why Jordan dreams of extending the beachgrass dune restoration project along the entire ocean-facing side of Coney Island and Brighton Beach, three miles of coastal nature she has walked along and pondered over almost daily for most of her life.
“The next Sandy is going to happen. It might not happen this year or next year, but it is inevitable. We need to be proactive, not reactive, and we have young people who want to do this work and want to be part of the solution,” she says. “If we can do something now to protect the children and the abuelas in this neighborhood, let’s do it.”
