Volunteers plant dunes, but Coney Island debates risk

On gray days in Coney Island, volunteers kneel in cold, damp sand to plant beach grass—part of a push by the National Wildlife Federation to strengthen dunes against future storm surges. Yet residents split over whether expanding dune restoration will truly pr

On a gray. cold. rainy day last April. a bus delivered people to the edge of Coney Island Creek Park. then the rest of the journey disappeared into damp sand and low. stubborn dunes. A small group knelt where the beach grass would take root. separating shoots. burying them a few inches deep. and working through the drizzle like it mattered—because for this coastline. it does.

The planting was part of a larger effort by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) to protect Coney Island. an area with some of the city’s highest concentrations of low-income. high flood risk census districts. The volunteers were restoring the strip of dunes meant to sit between the beach and the last line of houses.

Khadesha Stephenson was one of the handful of students who made it out that day despite the rain. Now a freshman at CUNY Hunter College. she said the experience hardened her resolve and is one reason she’s back for this season’s new planting. The project has expanded from six planting days last year to nine this year. It drew 670 volunteers, including students from 23 schools. Repeat volunteers like Stephenson are central to that momentum.

“I used to think that no matter what I did in my personal life to be low waste. my impact on the environment was just a blip in the system. ” she says. “But planting in those conditions that day changed the scope of how I think of my. and other people’s. actions in the world… We are not a blip. but a collective. a community of people who are willing to sacrifice comfort for the betterment of the world. It’s helped me realize our actions matter.”.

Coastal dune ecosystem restoration is often described as a nature-based solution. In practice, NWF frames it as protection against coastal flooding and erosion—something that can reduce the impact of storm surge and give communities an extra layer of resilience when the next major storm arrives.

For some residents, that promise also meets something harder to measure. For young people like Stephenson, the benefits aren’t only physical. They also offer a tangible way to grapple with climate anxiety.

But the argument in Coney Island isn’t one-directional. Unvegetated coastal dune systems, residents who are skeptical point out, aren’t fixed. Changing winds can sometimes push dunes to migrate into city streets, creating transportation hazards for local drivers. Others—especially residents with beachfront property—worry that additional dunes could block ocean views.

Abby Jordan, NWF’s climate education program manager, is working right at the fault line between fear and hope. She grew up within walking distance of the beach where the planting events take place. Jordan graduated with a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University in 2024. Her commitment is tied to what happened when Hurricane Sandy struck—storm surge that breached the Coney Island boardwalk and sent millions of gallons of brackish water and sewage rushing across the peninsula.

Jordan said that by the time she got home, her house was already flooding. Within 20 minutes, water was coming in from the windows.

After the storm, Jordan found steadiness through volunteering—stewardship projects in overlooked frontline communities like the one she grew up in.

“The beauty of nature-based solutions and doing something like planting native species is that anyone can play a part in making their own community more resilient,” she says.

NWF started the Coney Island Creek dune planting project in 2021, working with other groups including the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. NWF says it hopes to increase coastal resilience in the neighborhood and give youth hands-on experience through its climate education program.

The debate about whether dunes really help isn’t only local. When Hurricane Sandy hit, communities along Long Beach Barrier Island off Long Island’s South Shore offered a case study in how dunes performed as a protection mechanism.

Sand dunes. as described by the program’s supporters. protect communities by acting as a physical barrier that stops the flow of water and absorbs the force of waves. Beach grass contributes to an underground net-like root system that helps prevent sand from washing and blowing away. Leaves help collect new sand, which encourages new dunes to form. Even where “gray infrastructure” exists—such as seawalls—supporters argue dunes add an extra layer of defense.

The story there included conflict too. In the years leading up to the superstorm. the Army Corps of Engineers constructed dunes along the coast of Long Beach Barrier Island. Some areas. including the City of Long Beach. resisted the project. fearing it would ruin ocean views and reduce beach tourism. Other towns, such as Lido Beach, approved it.

After Hurricane Sandy, the Army Corps found that places that resisted the project sustained more damage. The protective value of sand dunes, supporters say, has also been proven by extreme weather events in other parts of the U.S.

There’s another data point people bring into conversations like this one: after Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008, one study modeling the value of vegetated dunes estimated that they contributed approximately $8,200 in storm protection per homeowner.

For Coney Island, those numbers land against new projections. In its 2024 report. the New York City Panel on Climate Change estimated sea levels will rise 14 to 19 inches by the 2050s and 25 to 39 inches by the 2080s. First Street. an organization that assesses environmental risk to properties and creates risk scores used by both realtor.com and Zillow. rates 100% of properties in Coney Island at extreme risk of flooding in the next 30 years.

(Update: Last December, Zillow pulled climate risk scores after complaints of lost sales.)

All of that sits behind Jordan’s push to expand restoration further. She dreams of extending the beachgrass dune restoration project along the entire ocean-facing side of Coney Island and Brighton Beach—three miles of coastal nature she has walked along and pondered over almost daily for most of her life.

Her pitch isn’t just about what dunes might do in an emergency. It’s about what residents can live with now, and what they might need to protect later. Jordan also points to a shifting public conversation.

A survey of a recent community meeting found a 50/50 split between community members who supported the project and those who were critical of it prior to the meeting. By the end of the meeting. the number of people who said they supported the project had doubled. suggesting that public opinion around dune restoration may shift as residents learn more about how the projects work.

For Jordan, that change is personal, not theoretical.

“The next Sandy is going to happen. It might not happen this year or next year, but it is inevitable. We need to be proactive. not reactive. and we have young people who want to do this work and want to be part of the solution. ” she says. “If we can do something now to protect the children and the abuelas in this neighborhood, let’s do it.”.

Coney Island coastal dunes National Wildlife Federation Hurricane Sandy climate adaptation beach grass environmental restoration storm surge community debate sea level rise