Chapter 10
Dune Restoration Over Two Decades
at the Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes
in Northern California
Andrea J. Pickart
10.1 Introduction
Ecological restoration of coastal dunes on the west coast of North America had its
beginnings in a relatively remote part of northern California. Although some
earlier attempts had been made to revegetate disturbed dunes or stabilize moving
dunes with native plants (Pickart 1988), the first documented efforts to restore dune
processes as a component of restoration began at the Lanphere Dunes in the 1980s
(Pickart and Sawyer 1998). In the ensuing decades, the region has become a model
for dune restoration, and California has led the west coast in the development and
implementation of restoration technologies. Most of this restoration has been
carried out with the goal of restoring biodiversity through the removal of invasive
plant species that have been shown to interrupt abiotic processes and reduce native
diversity (Pickart and Barbour 2007). Many of these projects were sponsored by
government agencies and NGOs with limited budgets, resulting in poor documentation and contributing to an under-appreciation of the progress made (Pickart
and Barbour 2007). Even the ‘‘gray’’ literature vastly underreports restoration
efforts because, unlike academics, restoration practitioners rely largely on a network of informal communication and information exchange (Baker 2005).
Historically, dune restoration success in California has been measured largely
based on vegetation recovery as a proxy for ecosystem health. Much progress has
been made in describing and classifying native vegetation types in California
dunes, allowing managers to better evaluate restoration success in this context
(Pickart and Barbour 2007; Sawyer et al. 2009). In other areas, such as New
Zealand, monitoring has been driven more by physical processes, with the
A. J. Pickart (&)
US Fish and Wildlife Service, 6800 Lanphere Rd,
Arcata, CA 95521, USA
e-mail: Andrea_Pickart@fws.gov
M. L. Martínez et al. (eds.), Restoration of Coastal Dunes, Springer Series
on Environmental Management, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-33445-0_10,
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
159
Dune Restoration Over Two Decades
at the Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes
in Northern California
Andrea J. Pickart
10.1 Introduction
Ecological restoration of coastal dunes on the west coast of North America had its
beginnings in a relatively remote part of northern California. Although some
earlier attempts had been made to revegetate disturbed dunes or stabilize moving
dunes with native plants (Pickart 1988), the first documented efforts to restore dune
processes as a component of restoration began at the Lanphere Dunes in the 1980s
(Pickart and Sawyer 1998). In the ensuing decades, the region has become a model
for dune restoration, and California has led the west coast in the development and
implementation of restoration technologies. Most of this restoration has been
carried out with the goal of restoring biodiversity through the removal of invasive
plant species that have been shown to interrupt abiotic processes and reduce native
diversity (Pickart and Barbour 2007). Many of these projects were sponsored by
government agencies and NGOs with limited budgets, resulting in poor documentation and contributing to an under-appreciation of the progress made (Pickart
and Barbour 2007). Even the ‘‘gray’’ literature vastly underreports restoration
efforts because, unlike academics, restoration practitioners rely largely on a network of informal communication and information exchange (Baker 2005).
Historically, dune restoration success in California has been measured largely
based on vegetation recovery as a proxy for ecosystem health. Much progress has
been made in describing and classifying native vegetation types in California
dunes, allowing managers to better evaluate restoration success in this context
(Pickart and Barbour 2007; Sawyer et al. 2009). In other areas, such as New
Zealand, monitoring has been driven more by physical processes, with the
A. J. Pickart (&)
US Fish and Wildlife Service, 6800 Lanphere Rd,
Arcata, CA 95521, USA
e-mail: Andrea_Pickart@fws.gov
M. L. Martínez et al. (eds.), Restoration of Coastal Dunes, Springer Series
on Environmental Management, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-33445-0_10,
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
159