Friday, March 18, 2016

Sharp Park Beach changing landscape


San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate/Mike Moffitt, 3/17/16. "El Nino uncovers Pacifica's drainage pipe 'ruins'.  See how storm surge has changed the landscape of Sharp Park beach, 32 images by Mike Moffit.

When was the last time Pacifica's Sharp Park State Beach featured oddly shaped dunes like this? (Photo taken on March 14, 2016.) See how the beach has evolved over recent years in this gallery. Photo: Mike Moffitt, SFGATE
Wonder where that sand went?
(South beach edge of Mori Point)
It almost seems as if the sand that has disappeared from the drainage structure on the southern edge of the beach at at Mori Point has migrated a half mile or so to the north. (March 14, 2016.) Photo: Mike Moffitt, SFGATE
Oh, it migrated one-half mile.
(North beach edge of Mori Point)
"Last month Chronicle columnist Carl Nolte reported on a long-lost structure — a concrete seawall and a cobblestone stairway that emerged on San Francisco's Ocean Beach after a winter storm in January. That got me thinking. How have this winter's El Niño storms affected Pacifica's popular Sharp Park State Beach, specifically between the Pacifica Pier and Mori Point?  Pretty dramatically, it turns out.

I compared photos of the beach from as long ago as 2004 with pictures taken as recently as Monday, March 14. While the winter's storms have not uncovered anything as impressive as they did on Ocean Beach, they have significantly altered the landscape of Pacifica's beach. At one end of the beach, the black sand has washed away to reveal formerly hidden infrastructure. At the other, just the opposite has occurred — tons of sand have piled up, higher than the seawall in places.

 ....  And when humans build too close the sea, their roads, buildings and other engineered works often end up like a sand castle at high tide. The recent demolitions at 320 and 330 Esplanade Avenue in Pacifica are ample evidence of that."  Read article and links, view photographs.  

Note photographs also by Mike Moffitt (SF Gate article above):  Sand dunes cavities #1, sand mound #11 of 31.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The extreme environmentalists who have hijacked City Hall, claimed that Sharp Park Beach was a "non starter" as an off-leash dog beach/park, arguing that it was "sensitive habitat to endangered species". Although US Fish and Wildlife Service completely disagreed with their claim, it didn't matter. These anti-human (and their best friends) ideologues will never be satisfied until their "managed retreat" relocates us all somewhere in the vicinity of North Platte, Nebraska.

Anonymous said...

It's easy to not give a shit for the pain of others if it doesn't affect you.
If the homes of these faux-enviros were in jeopardy they would be singing a completely different tune.
Hypocrits, all of them.

Anonymous said...

When you build a retaining wall vs a sea wall it moves around the sand. Go down and look at the seawall at Ocean Beach it was built during the Great Depression as a public works project. Not a crack in it.