Houston Chronicle by John Tedesco 1/15/2022
For more than four decades, volunteers in this beach town have been fighting a never-ending battle against rising sea levels and coastal erosion with an unusual weapon — discarded Christmas trees.
No one can quite remember who came up with the idea. But every year after Christmas, they fan out along the beach and tie down hundreds or even thousands of dead trees to restore vital sand dunes that protect this barrier island from destructive storm surges.
“Without a dune there, the water’s just going to come straight through in high tides and things like that, so the dunes are our protection,” said Gregg Bisso, Surfside’s mayor and a former president of the Save Our Beach Association, which helps organize the annual “Dunes Day” event.
About 80 volunteers showed up early Saturday to spread up to 1,000 Christmas trees on the beach using wooden stakes and twine that will decompose along with the trees. The volunteers endured strong winds from a cold front that flung sand in their eyes and tossed some trees along the beach like tumbleweeds.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Surfside-Beach-fights-coastal-erosion-with-16778431.php
