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An estimated 1,000 students from middle school through college pitched in to plant dune grasses and install snow fencing at North End beach this week.

Starting on Monday, 200 to 300 college students from Rutgers University, Montclair University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the United States Naval Academy joined organizer Tim Donnelly and other volunteers at the beach. The Home Depot Foundation and Waves for Water donated the grass and fencing.

Those volunteers spent their spring break time installing snow fencing and planting dune grass throughout the North End area. The fencing will create new dunes and close off the dunes in areas that previously weren’t protected, Donnelly said.

Today, younger, local children joined the efforts. Kids from Asbury Park Middle School and the city’s Sisters Academy and Hope Academy charter schools, as well as Long Branch, Neptune and Middletown schools, will plant donated grass, as well as some plants that they grew themselves through the American Littoral Society’s Dunegrasses in Classes program.

The Dunegrasses in Classes program has been going on for seven years, said Stevie Thorsen of the American Littoral Society [ALS]. Thorsen goes into schools and educates students on the importances of dunes and American beachgrass, she said.

“The students learn the value of dunes as an ecosystem as well as the important role dunes play in protecting our coast from powerful storms,” she said. “After the presentation, each student makes their own soil mixture and plants a dormant beachgrass culm in a pot to care for in school. Under their care, the plant will come out of dormancy.”

The project was especially valuable this year in light of Hurricane Sandy, she noted. The superstorm decimated the dune system at North End beach.

Of the 1,600 students who participated in Dunegrasses in Classes, about half are planting in Asbury Park today. The remainder will plant their dunegrass in Sea Bright on Saturday, Thorsen said.

City environmental activist Joyce Grant was thrilled to see the efforts of Thorsen and Donnelly coincide this weekend. Grant has volunteered with the ALS for the past four years, she said.

“It’s a community effort,” she said. “It’s just wonderful. This year has been a very strong collaboration, not just between Tim, but the city department of public works and the ALS.”

Volunteers affiliated with Donnelly’s efforts are using their college spring break time to restore the city’s dunes. They were undaunted by  yesterday’s cold, snowy conditions, Grant noted.

“I looked at the beach and there were all these students, cleaning up the beach,” she said. “It’s just a matter of community at work, trying to restore and rebuild.”

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[Above photos of NJIT volunteers by Jed Medina. To see more of his photos from the event, click here.]

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