PCA Funds Live Staking at Saugerties Lighthouse

From storms to shipwrecks to devastating fires, Saugerties Lighthouse has seen over 150 years of change along the Hudson River. These days, those who care for the meticulously restored historic structure and its still-operational beacon must contend with the impacts of climate change, including rising waters, extreme weather, and coastal erosion.

With the help of an Ecological Restoration Grant from Partners for Climate Action, the Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy is combating these threats using an innovative combination of techniques for native plant restoration and shoreline stabilization.

*Tall willow stems sprout from a wattle installed in a previous year. Invisible underground roots protect the sandy shore from destructive wave action.*

In addition to planting bare-root trees and shrubs from local sources, lighthouse keeper Patrick Landewe is seeing success with the use of live stakes and wattles, two simple and cost-effective methods of establishing strongly rooted plants to protect shorelines from intensifying storms and rising water levels.

*Lighthouse Keeper Patrick Landewe demonstrates bundling and tying a wattle of willow stems prior to installation.*

Many riparian (river- and coast-adapted) plant species have evolved a unique defense against the natural floods that periodically bury their stems in mud. Far from suffocating in these conditions, these plants are able to send out new roots from nodes along their buried stems and simply carry on growing.

Live staking and wattling techniques make good use of this adaptation. In live staking, dormant stem cuttings of native plants like willow and dogwood are driven directly into the ground, where they will root and grow into new plants, holding even the sandiest soils in place with their questing root systems. Wattling goes even further by burying bundles of long stem cuttings in a horizontal trench. New roots will grow downward and new stems will shoot upward through the soil, resulting in a fast-growing, living buffer.

On March 29, Saugerties Lighthouse welcomed student volunteers from Place Corps to help install live stakes and wattles along the shore of the Hudson River. Despite a chilly north wind, the mood was cheerful as volunteers collected willow and dogwood twigs, bundled wattles, dug trenches, and installed the plant material. The buried stakes and wattles are expected to begin regrowing immediately, and volunteers at the season’s next planting events will likely glimpse new shoots poking through the sand.