Oregon introduced beachgrass to hold shifting sand in place; it later changed the entire dune system

European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria) is now well established in the Oregon dunes In 1910, Oregon introduced European beachgrass near Coos Bay to stabilise its shifting dunes. The plant trapped moving sand and helped hold the dunes in place as it was meant to. But as the beachgrass spread, it changed the coastal landscape and reduced the open, shifting sand habitats that native plants and animals had adapted to.European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria) is now well established in the Oregon dunes and dominates large parts of the dune system. A government data on invasive plants in the Lower Coos Watershed says the species has significantly changed the local landscape. It also notes that American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata), which was intentionally planted near the mouth of the Columbia River in the 1930s, later spread south.The two beachgrass species have created a nearly continuous barrier from the foredunes inland towards Highway 101, changing what was once a dynamic dune system. Aerial photographs of the Oregon dunes showed that vegetation covered about 20% of the dunes in 1939. About 50 years later, more than 80% of the dunes in the same region were covered by vegetat...