Sagamore Beach Cliff Erosion Control

Sagamore Beach is Bourne's frontage on Cape Cod Bay. It runs a mile or so from the Scusset Beach to the Cedarville section of southern Plymouth.

Sagamore Beach's coastline is defined by sand cliffs, and that's where we are headed today.

Sand cliffs are awesome, save for one thing... they erode. This makes them a rotten place to build a house in top of, which contrasts with the sweeping views and salt air which make them a terrific place to build a house on.

This sets up a battle between humans and erosion. It is a battle happening all along the Massachusetts coastline, and various means to win that battle are in action or being planned.

Sagamore has several different types of erosion control, and you can up that number by strolling past the White Cliffs in Cedarville. You can see more if you head up the South Shore.

You don't really win when you fight the ocean. The goal is to avoid losing completely. Failing that, you at least try to forestall the defeat long enough to hand off the problem to your children or grandchildren.

Many people on Sagamore Beach would settle for that outcome.

Sagamore Beach is somewhat protected by the barrier beach that is Cape Cod. They don't get bad surf.. These cliffs might be gone already if they were a bit north, like Duxbury or Scituate.

Places like that have seawalls. Sagamore Beach was not afforded that option. To be fair, you'd need a pretty high wall to seal off the erosion problems here, and you'd have to run it a mile.

Duxbury and Scituate also had government help with the walls. Duxbury residents were able to pay $500 per beachfront house in the 1950s for a seawall.

Saggy missed that gravy train. Anyone with .gov in their email address wants nothing to do with them these days. Sagamore Beach is on her own.

Their problem is compounded by the fact that surf is only one factor at work. Even the worst storms aren't smashing waves off the top of these cliffs. Rain, wind, human activity and even gravity will take sand from the top of that hill to the bottom of it, where the tides can wash it away.

When enough sand moves down the cliff, the houses will eventually follow.

Various means of addressing this issue can be seen at work along Sagamore Beach. We took a stroll with the camera to check them out.

The basic erosion control idea is to build a structure at the bottom of the cliff that prevents cliff sand from entering into the surf process.

That structure can be stone, vegetation or even more sand. That would be costly. Ideally, it would be the height of the cliff, but that would be very costly.

Of course, your home and family tumbling 80 feet down a cliff in a collapsing house is even more very costly.

A good structure can stop the flow of sand to a certain extent. Prevention of lower cliff erosion forestalls upper cliff erosion, which in turn forestalls houses collapsing down cliffs.

This guy has a nice looking wall at the base of the cliff under his house. It probably cost a fortune, but it also protects a fortune.

He also has the hill covered with vegetation, a proven erosion control technique. The bushes block sand, and the roots provide below-ground erosion prevention. Flat beaches like Duxbury rely on vegetation for erosion control anywhere that nobody lives at.

The stairs are a nice touch as well, with the pilings ( and the below-stairs vegetation) offering erosion protection.

You can see the advantages such an approach has over the let-nature-take-her-course approach shown below.

I grew up on a beach that was very vulnerable to erosion, so I know how it is. There is a difference between what you should do and what you can do.

This guy may also like to have a cool wall, but maybe he's underwater on the house and can't afford the enormous financial hit. He's also one erosion event from being underwater in the house.

I'm not picking on this guy, as he is influenced by factors that I may not be aware of. I'm pretty sure he has more money than me. My dumpy cottage is small enough that, if it fell down a hill, I'd just get a couple of buddies and carry it back up.

So, no insult to that homeowner. His house actually rules... until it rolls.

Taking a walk on the beach and being crushed by a house rolling down a sand dune is a very Cape Cod way to die. The victim wouldn't have time to process that thought, and it would be of little comfort to them anyhow.

Likewise, they would probably not be in the mood to, as the house fell on them, think that "This is the last thing that the Wicked Witch Of The East saw."

I think this guy hired one of those dudes who spray a Chem-Lawn onto your bare yard if you are too lazy to buy and spread seed.

I want to putt here very badly. It would make a terrific 18th hole for White Cliffs Country Club.

It would be environmentally damaging, would harm the man's house and I don't advocate it... but that house would rule to go sledding at.

As someone who grew up repairing a lawn every spring that was destroyed every winter by the ocean, I can tell you that grass will work just fine... until it doesn't.

This is a groyne, a rock wall barrier extending into the sea. The purpose of it is to stop the flow of sand down the beach.

Ideally, this will protect the sand at the base of the dune. Not directly, but protection nonetheless.

Granted, it also starves the beach south from it of sand. Sagamore Beach cliffs are sorta designed to break down over time to feed Sandwich and Barnstable.

While a Sagamore Beach bum may say "Eff Barnstable," he only has to look north a bit to see the groynes at the White Cliffs Country Club keeping Manomet/Ellisville/Cedarville sand from washing down to Sagamore Beach.

A quick stroll up to Cedarville will show you other ways to fight erosion.

A great many more methods are on display here.

I am not aware of any laws banning certain types of structures, but I wouldn't faint from surprise if somebody told me otherwise.

Cedarville has a sandbag wall protecting one part of their cliffs.

I'm not sure if he is allowed to fill those bags with beach sand or not.

I hope he can, because I'd feel badly for a man living on a sand cliff overlooking a sandy beach who has to import sand.

This guy is trying the same idea, but with rocks wrapped in wire.

It looks like a Rock Lobster trap. Down, down....

You can kind of look at the yard next to him, with no protection at all, and free associate it with "Google image search result for 'futility.'"

Speaking of which...

Beach grass does indeed help against erosion. Duxbury Beach plants thousands of stalks each year... and then plant even more when the previous plantings wash away.

Beach grass is fine for gradual, gentle slopes where the enemy is wind. It is not what you want to gamble your home and family on if you live on a rapidly eroding sand cliff.

You start to think "Little pig, little pig, let me in" when looking at this method.

You know you want your own six figure Dune Tram!