Defenders of the dunes

FRIENDS OF SAUBLE BEACH

Outstanding Environmental Achievement, Cottager Group

“I’ve always enjoyed the dunes,” says Peter Seibert, the chair of the Friends of Sauble Beach, who has been coming to Sauble his whole life and has had a cottage there for 33 years. “I developed a fondness as a kid, playing on the beach.” That beach, a mecca for cottagers, stretches 11 kilometres along the shore of Lake Huron, with the flat lakeside land bordered by undulating dunes, a unique habitat for rare plants and animals and a defence against incoming storms. This fragile ecosystem is constantly at risk, especially from human activity. 

“Sauble is a relic beach. There’s no new sand coming,” says Mary Ransom, Seibert’s predecessor as Friends’ chair. So in 2000, when the town proposed paved parking at the beach, the community reacted. “That’s when we mobilized,” says Ransom, also a Sauble cottager for more than 30 years. Cottagers united with local residents to save the dunes and preserve the coastal environment at this popular retreat. The fledgling group, which now numbers 50 families, two-thirds of them cottagers, first secured a $46,500 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, then commissioned the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation to produce a beach management plan. “The plan gives us credibility and reassures people that we’re not just dune-huggers,” says Ransom. “We want people to enjoy the beach for years to come. Everything we’ve done and will continue  to do is based on its strategies.”

What the group has done is this: constructed boardwalks and walkways so the crowds cross the dunes only at specific locations, reducing erosion; erected sand fencing (provided by the town) each fall with local firefighters and other volunteers, to keep the sand on the beach during the winter; built benches along three kilometres of beach; created educational pamphlets, which it then gives to members and local residents and businesses; and conducted field trips and seminars for local schools. Now, visitors to the beach are greeted by strategically placed signs, which explain the importance of preserving the dunes, and blue flags, showing the water is safe for swimming, from an international organization, Blue Flag, that designates beaches that meet strict water-quality, safety, and environmental-management guidelines. 

Sauble is the first beach on Lake Huron to get that designation (and the second in North America), due, in part, to the work of the Friends in encouraging stewardship among beach-goers. When you arrive to go for a swim or just to take in some sun and breeze, you see a demonstration dune, with representative plant species. “We have interpretive signs that explain the dune cycle,” says Seibert. “The demo area, about sixteen by twenty feet, is hemmed in by large stones donated by a local quarry. And all the native dune plants – wormwood, grasses – are labelled.” This spring, the group is unveiling a new viewing platform it constructed for people with disabilities. “Our sunsets are renowned, of course,” says Ransom. “We want everyone to be able to see them.”

That’s the kind of place Sauble is. “It’s a very friendly community,” she says, mentioning the wealth of activity on the beach – walking, kayaking, sandcastle building – and the fish suppers that “cottagers flock to.” And as for the Friends: “We’re a very cohesive, hard-working group, and we all feel passionately about this place.”

Judges’ comments We were struck by the innovation of the Friends’ program and its impact on the Sauble community. We like that the group of mostly cottagers took on a project to preserve and improve a public resource not just for their benefit but also for that of the greater community. We all love beaches, but our use of them can threaten their ecosystem so it’s great that the Friends found ways to encourage people both to enjoy and respect the dunes.

Photo: Ian Brown

Click here to read about Joann McCann, Outstanding Environmental Achievement, Individual

Click here to read about the Green Cottager Awards of Merit, 2007