Grasses in Classes Program Culminates on April 21 with Beach Grass Planting Event

Littoral Society Education Director Nicole Haines began the interactive program by speaking to students about the importance of dunes in helping to reduce the effects of coastal storms, such as flooding and beach erosion, as well as how beach grasses help build and preserve dunes.

Each student was then given the chance to plant a culm or dormant stalk of beachgrass in a pot filled with a mixture of peatmoss and sand. On Saturday, April 21, students will transplant that grass at a beach restoration site on Sandy Hook. The Earth Day weekend grass planting event will be open to the public and take place from 10 a.m. to Noon near Lot B in Gateway National Recreation Area's Sandy Hook Unit. Click here for more information.

Check the Littoral Society calendar for more Earth Day-related events.

​Each year the Littoral Society brings this program to more than 1000 students, as well as their teachers and parents. The Grasses in Classes program is just one avenue through which the Littoral Society promotes community-based stewardship of New Jersey’s coastal environment.

The unique aspect of this program is that by growing the plants themselves, students will develop a sense of ownership and attachment for their plants and thus the coast. The students also get to play a direct role in the Littoral Society's dune and marsh restoration work and gain the satisfaction of helping to preserve a local ecosystem.