Plan seeks to make the beach more open, sandier and bird friendly
Adriana Vossari, RI & Local Government
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| Photo by Will Collette |
Crews began applying targeted herbicide to invasive plants
at East Beach in Charlestown on August 25, the latest phase of a multi-year
habitat restoration project on the Ninigret Barrier Beach, according to the
Rhode Island State Parks project page. The beach,
campground and permitted sand trail remain open, though visitors are told to
follow posted signs and stay on designated trails and in parking areas.
The Town of Charlestown has posted its own notice pointing
residents to the work, which is led by the Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the
nonprofit Save The Bay. The town's page describes the effort as restoring dune
and salt-marsh habitat, removing invasive plants and restoring natural tidal
creeks.
For beachgoers, the practical effect is visual as much as
anything: portions of the barrier beach that were shaded by pine stands are now
open and sandy, and crews and equipment may be working in posted areas.
What the work involves
The project has three main pieces. Contractors are cutting
and mulching woody invasive plants, including Japanese black pine, beach rose,
bush honeysuckle and bittersweet. Licensed applicators are treating herbaceous
invasives such as Japanese knotweed and Asiatic sand sedge. And Save The Bay is
digging shallow drainage channels, called runnels, through degraded salt marsh
to let standing water drain back out with the tide.
State Parks says the herbicide phase that began August 25
involves small amounts of an aquatic-safe product applied directly to
individual plants by licensed professionals, with treatment areas chosen by
habitat biologists and applications avoided during rain and high winds. A
one-page project overview revised August 19 identifies the product as Aquaneat
and says it is registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The
available state materials do not include a treatment log, contractor name or an
independent risk assessment.
The schedule on the State Parks page describes late-summer
2026 work on Japanese knotweed beginning in mid-August and Asiatic sand sedge
treatment beginning in mid-September, alongside the specific August 25 start
date for treatment.
How the site got here
Project partners say Japanese black pines were planted at
the barrier beach beginning in the 1970s to stabilize dunes. Over the following
decades, according to the State Parks overview, the trees crowded out native
plants and converted much of the barrier beach into a mostly forested
environment, reducing open nesting habitat and interfering with the natural
movement of sand.
That framing comes from the agencies running the project. No
independent study specific to this site and this round of work was identified
in the public materials.
The marsh component started in November 2025, after state
and federal permits were issued. Save The Bay's presentation to the public says
shallow runnels were dug by hand and with DEM's low-ground-pressure excavator,
equipment designed to spread weight so it does not sink into or compact soft
marsh soil. Earlier phases included herbicide treatment near the East Beach
parking lot and Ninigret sand trail in September 2025, and cutting and mulching
of woody invasives over the winter of 2025–26.
DEM and Save The Bay held an informational meeting on the
project at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center in Charlestown on December 11, 2025.
What partners say it will do
The stated goals are to restore a more open dune system
where sand can move and rebuild after storms, to restore tidal drainage in
marsh areas holding standing water, and to improve habitat for the federally
threatened piping plover, the least tern and the at-risk saltmarsh sparrow.
Partners also say improved marsh drainage should reduce plant die-off and limit
mosquito-breeding habitat.
Those are objectives, not measured results. The project
materials describe monitoring and adaptive management as ongoing but do not set
out metrics or a reporting deadline, and no completed evaluation of the current
work has been published.
Money and scale
State Parks says the project is funded through the National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation's America the Beautiful program, and the Save The
Bay presentation says DEM and the nonprofit received an America the Beautiful
grant in 2024 covering salt-marsh and coastal-habitat restoration at multiple
Rhode Island sites, including the Ninigret barrier. A dollar figure for the
Ninigret work does not appear in the public project materials.
Nor does an acreage figure for the current project. An
earlier and separate Ninigret marsh restoration, documented by the Coastal
Resources Management Council in 2016, covered roughly 25 acres and used dredged
sand to raise a severely degraded marsh in 2017. Save The Bay's presentation
says the current project includes maintaining that earlier restoration area.
Not the breachway project
The habitat work should not be confused with the Charlestown
Breachway repair and Ninigret Pond dredging project nearby. DEM has described
that as a separate $8.4 million effort involving structural repairs, dredging
and beach and dune nourishment; the agency announced in April that the
breachway's structural components were finished while the habitat project
continued.
No formal opposition, legal challenge or public objection to
the habitat project appears in the state or municipal records reviewed.
What happens next
The August 19 overview says the initial restoration is
nearly complete, but follow-up invasive-plant treatments are planned through
2027, meaning visitors should expect periodic crew activity at East Beach for
at least another two summers. Current project updates, including treatment
timing and access guidance, are posted on the Rhode Island State Parks
project page.
