When the Dune Project was started in 1995, it was under the direction of the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority, working with the Southampton Board of Parks Management.

Many long hours of planning and public meetings were held.  It was pointed out to us and obvious to anyone who walked the beach that the sand was slowly migrating from the end of High St. to the area known as "the cut" or South St. beach.  In fact, by that time, the beach area from High St. to the Long Dock was nearly all rocks and pebbles. 

The Saugeen River does not generate sand that is deposited along the shoreline, as does the Sauble River, therefore we had to save and protect what we had. 

Nearly every group in town was behind the project, from Town Council to the students from G.C. Huston, from the Southampton Beach Assoc. to the Southampton Skating Club.  Individuals and groups signed up for volunteer hours to help on many aspects of the project.

Every day from the beginning of September to mid December, people were coming out to help restore the dunes on the beach, to plant the grasses to trap the sand, to form the walkways to move people through the dunes and onto the beach, to build the observation platform and erect the signage.

Until that time, people wandered wherever they wished, as was evident by the many trails leading directly to each and every cottage along the shore and crisscrossing all over the place.  Any ground cover was trampled and had no hope of holding the sand.

Originally, we tried putting up snow fencing around the end of September because once the high winds of October and November started, the sand was blown off the beach and deposits could actually be found as far inland as the highway.  Now the Works Department had many jobs to do and erecting the snow fencing simply fit best into their schedule, at the end of September. 

This caused a hue and cry from the cottagers who didn't wish to have their view of the lake, or their passageway to it, blocked off so early in the year.  Why couldn't we wait until November?  Well, because by then the winds had already removed a good portion of the sand and there was a good chance winter had already shown itself along the shoreline.

Once the sand is off the beach, it cannot be scooped up and returned.  It has become contaminated and, by law, cannot be put back on the beach where any contaminates in it could leak into the lake.  Therefore, we followed the advice of the Conservation Authority and trapped the sand, and protected this resource which would ensure a beach in Southampton for our great grandchildren.

By the stories that were told by some of the old timers working on the project, high-jinks in the dunes and on the beach is nothing new.  It's been around as long as there were teenagers and hormones.  We also knew that no one wants change, especially in their own backyard.  That's just the way we're made.

We suspected it would take at least one generation to be accepted ... if people would be open minded enough to accept it.

It was also our hope that people would take pride in the beach, so why not pick up litter as you see it, clean up the graffiti.  There is no better way to teach our children values than by example. 

 

Sincerely,

Karen O'Brien