Gulf Shores City Schools (GSCS) partnered with the Gulf State Park and Dune Doctors to host Planting for Protection (P4P), an event for local students to help initiate coastal dune restoration and plant growth along the coast.

Amanda Post, education coordinator for Dune Doctors, said P4P is when fifth-grade, high school and middle school students at GSCS visit the beach and work together to carry out a student-led dune restoration project.

"I'm so proud of this class because they had to put 3,500 plants in the ground in two days," Post said, "and they knocked it out. This is the second time, second year in a row, where the students have completed the entire allotted plants."

Now in the fourth year, some students who came in the first year as fifth-graders have now returned as middle and high school student helpers. The first day of P4P is environmental training for the older students as they learn how to instruct the younger students.

"We teach them about the dune ecosystem. We teach them how to plant native dune vegetation," Post said. "We then give them pointers and suggestions and build them up to become something called a Planting for Protection Mentor."

After they receive training in sand movement and planting techniques, they are ready to get "out on the beach" and get to work. Using recycled live Christmas trees, collected by the city, students create a "horseshoe shape" that works to "capture sand in a uniform, continuous" fashion that over time will form dunes in the designated areas along the Gulf State Park.

Post said the older students then teach fifth grade students "to carry out the work they learned on the first day." The younger students are taught how to dig a hole for beach plants, how deep the plant needs to go, how to cover the plants and the spacing between each plant. Post said, "it's all strategic" as the Gulf State Park staff instructs students on coastal flora and fauna.

The fifth-graders learn from the Dune Doctors and Gulf State Park staff about "nine different plants they get to work with" in the restoration process. Then the older students, official P4P mentors by day two, step in and work with a group of three or four students each and plant seeds and saplings around the horseshoe Christmas trees.

"The goal, the vision, behind this is to empower and raise up the next generation of coastal stewards," Post said, "teach them leadership and give them a voice in the coastal ecosystem by giving them that hands-on experience. Because we believe once you've been the one putting the plants in the ground, you develop a personal stake in that environment."

MICAH GREEN / GULF COAST MEDIA

After P4P, students often "advocate for the dune" and native plants as they instruct friends, families and "the community of Gulf Shores" about the coastal ecosystem and the endangered wildlife that call the dunes home. Post said there were "a little over 40 mentors" this year and "the entire fifth-grade class" from GSCS, which was "between 200 and 250" student participants.

As the sand starts to take hold and the weather warms, Post said the "plants are going to flourish" across the area where the students worked. Over time, the trees and plants will look like natural dunes.

"You're going to see these wonky, half-buried, little Christmas trees along the beach, but the first dune site the kids set up in 2021 is pretty much buried now," Post said. "If you go look at it (the 2021 site), the plants have reached maturity. They're doing awesome."

Post said that residents and visitors do not need to worry about "the developing dune" taking away space on "the recreational beach area.

"Efforts like Planting for Protection help the beach in the long run," Post said. "Coastal dunes not only protect us from storm surge events and provide habitat for wildlife, but they also function as reserves that will one day help replenish the beach with sand when the next major storm erodes Alabama's coastline."

Post said once the sand has built up and covered the trees, they will eventually decompose, plants will keep growing, capture more sand and create successful dune systems.

"Mother Nature created dunes so that they can absorb the brunt of the storm surge," Post said. "Whenever we have commercial beaches and we have public beaches, typically, a lot of the foot traffic will kill native plants that are trying to go seaward."

MICAH GREEN / GULF COAST MEDIA

The Christmas trees, Post said, "help stop foot traffic" from stepping on the "developing baby plants," allowing the dunes and plants to "continue its natural seaward" crawl. Foot traffic often "kills the vegetation" and after that vegetation dies, "the root systems can't hold the sand."

"So, when a storm event happens, it's a lot easier for the waves to break through the dunes," Post said.

With the beach restoration, the dunes have a chance to extend closer to the shore. The new dune, once established, will add to the "line of defense" from Mother Nature and provide habitat for species like the beach mouse.

"The waves have to work a lot harder to pass the dunes and flood the city," Post said. "So, it is in the best interest of the city to add, to be conscious of putting in new dune lines and working on educating students and allowing, giving the chance for the native vegetation to establish."

Post said the P4P initiative has "brought over 13,000 plants back onto the beach" over the past four years with the help of "over 1,000 students." For students interested in continuing coastal protection, Post recommended following Dune Doctors on social media to keep up with what's happening next year.

"Next year will be five years of Planting for Protection in Baldwin County," Post said, "so our goal is to reach out to P4P, Plan for Protection, alumni to bring them back out onto the beach and to go through and visit all the restoration sites we can see over the years."

MICAH GREEN / GULF COAST MEDIA

Jessica Sampley, career tech coordinator for GSCS, attended the P4P event with the school. She said students in the plant science program have "for years before" partnered with the Gulf State Park to place the Christmas trees, collected by the city, along the beach. Then Dune Doctors got involved, and it became a program across the school, not just for the plant science students.

"Over the course of the four years (since Dune Doctor involvement), it's been one of our favorite events, you know, just because of the impact it has on the community," Sampley said, "and seeing the kids invest in that."

Sampley said this event helps students realize just how much work is involved "to make something like this happen."

"We're just really lucky to live where we live," Sampley said, "to have the Gulf State Park like right at our front door and have partnerships with industry and nonprofit, and you know, across the board, all these different partners who are willing to work with us and give our kids experiences outside of the classroom."

The students, Sampley said, have "really taken ownership" of protecting where they live and the dunes they help to create. She said students will say "That's our dune. Don't step on that" to anyone walking near their artificial dunes.

"I've seen them literally educating other people, especially their parents," Sampley said. "… It's important for them to give back in some way and help protect it. Because who else is going to if they don't?"

Sampley said she feels sustainability is a "priority for the younger generation." She enjoys living and working in a school system that has "the flexibility to get out of the classroom" to bring students outside to learn in the place they live.

Other out-of-classroom events Sampley mentioned include the Farm to Table Harvest and the Earth Day Celebration, which are both coming up this spring semester for GSCS students.

"This was their classroom today," Sampley said, motioning to the beach around her. "It's just, it's phenomenal, you know, it's very inspiring for me to also look out and see all of it come together."

Note: This article previously stated the students did work in "beach renourishment" but that has since been corrected as that is a term for when the Army Corps of Engineers extracts sand from an offshore shoal, Amanda Post told GCM.