Goleta Beach is a region of coastline located near Goleta,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, just east of the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

(UCSB) campus. A portion of the shore of Goleta Bay is managed by the County of Santa Barbara, as the Goleta Beach County Park (GBCP). The beach itself is partly man-made as sand was spread onto an existing sandspit in 1945. The beach is a seasonal habitat for migrating shorebirds, including the

snowy plover The snowy plover (''Charadrius nivosus'') is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in the southern and western United States, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Long considered to be a subspecie ...

, an endangered species, and is occasionally closed due to nourishment efforts.

Elements

Slough and wetlands

Goleta Slough is a nearby tidal estuary that empties into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. The slough drains the

Goleta Valley Goleta (; ; Spanish for " Schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 c ...

and watershed, and receives the water of all of the major creeks in the Goleta area, including the southern face of the

Santa Ynez Mountains The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the Transverse Ranges, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of the west coast of North America. It is the westernmost range in the Transverse Ranges. The range is a large fault block of Cenozoic age create ...

. The slough

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

has been affected by the numerous berms and tide gates that alter tidal circulation (Audubon, 2003). The Goleta Slough wetlands once covered approximately ; however, the current size is about . Most of the habitat conversion occurred in the early 1940s, when a small airport was expanded to accommodate an airfield for the Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara, located immediately south of the estuary on what is now the

University of California at Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

campus. After the war, that airfield became the

Santa Barbara Municipal Airport Santa Barbara Municipal Airport is west of downtown Santa Barbara, California, United States. SBA covers 948 acres (384 ha) of land and has three runways. It is near the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the city of Goleta. The a ...

. Groups, such as the Sierra Club and

Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...

, have been especially concerned regarding the

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

in the Goleta Slough and its surrounding uplands. The UCSB student-supported and student-led Coastal Fund has worked with the Goleta Slough Management Committee, to conduct minor

ecological restoration Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human interrupt ...

, such as the removal of non-native plants. The Goleta Slough Management Committee has been a vocal supporter of the

California Coastal Conservancy The California State Coastal Conservancy (CSCC, SCC) is a non-regulatory state agency in California established in 1976 to enhance coastal resources and public access to the coast. The CSCC is a department of the California Natural Resources Agen ...

’s plans for a major

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

project that would allow an experimental opening prior to a return to tidal circulation, in at least one of the marshland basins. It was able to secure approval from the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

to go ahead with the experiment as the action may affect the Santa Barbara Airport.

Park

The park is a day-use park (open from 8:00 am to sunset) that features 27 picnic tables, four horseshoe pits, three restrooms, a

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

court and other amenities. The park once featured a “Windamajig”, an active wind animated art piece sculpture. Unfortunately, the art installation was damaged by strong winds in 2006 and removed. The park itself is large and of beach are included in the domain (Kisner, 1998). The

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, More’s Landing, was first built in 1874 and further modifications were done in the late 1920s, by the federal Department of Forestry (Kisner, 1998). The Beachside Restaurant closed in February 2021. The park is popular with locals and tourists alike and receives about 1.5 million visitors per year, making it the most heavily used park in the Santa Barbara County Park system (SBCPD, 2003). The park provides 580 parking spaces, as many visitors arrive by car, via Highway 217.

The western point

The base of the point is described as “a rocky

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, although species present there are more like those ound nearpier pilings” (Kisner, 1998). Freshwater seeps and some exposed pipes drain from the UCSB campus nearby the point. Most importantly, the rocky point and surrounding bluffs suffer from serious erosion most often associated with El Nino events. The shape of the bay focuses

wave energy Wave power is the capture of energy of wind waves to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or pumping water. A machine that exploits wave power is a wave energy converter (WEC). Waves are generated by wind ...

at the location. Because of the erosion, the edge of the bluffs above has become somewhat unstable and may be dangerous for those walking nearby.

History

The estuary mouth fluctuated along the beach while 40,000 years of coastal uplift raised the mesa to the east and west. Since the late 19th century, Santa Barbara residents have been modifying the Goleta Beach area. Cattle grazing in the watershed begun in 1846 and fires caused hillsides to erode and fill parts of the Goleta Slough with sediment. In the early 20th century, local landowners invited citizens to bring fill to the beach on which a state beach park was established. Meanwhile, in 1943 the federal government continued the filling of the estuary when it bulldozed the historic Mescalitan Island just inside the estuary to create an airbase for use during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

(SBCPD, 2003). In the 1960s, further construction continued on the wetlands including a sewage treatment facility and

Highway 217, and the state park was turned over to Santa Barbara County.

Erosion

An ongoing problem concerning Goleta Beach is coastal erosion; sand and sediment is constantly being washed away and the beach is narrowing. In fact, in the last 14 years, the beach has been eroding at an average rate of -per-year. If no action is taken, the park, which consists of outdoor grills, horseshoe pits, a playground, public restrooms and shower, five parking lots and other county-maintained facilities (SBCPD, 2006), as well as the restaurant building is in danger of being lost. However, some proposed solutions designed to absorb wave energy and prevent erosion — particularly the so-called “hard engineering” solutions — may increase erosion elsewhere or alter the south central coast littoral cell. A number of plans have been proposed by different stakeholders and they generally fall under three broader philosophies. The first belief is that the park must be saved at all costs and supporters have argued for “hard engineering” coastal defense. A second group of stakeholders on the opposite extreme of the spectrum calls for managed retreat where existing utilities and structures are ripped out and nature is allowed to take its course. A third option, a moderate compromise suggests that the current ‘soft’ beach nourishment strategy is worth continuing.

Coastal defense

The structural proposals consist of numerous strategies. One possible structure is a breakwater. Breakwaters are placed a few hundred feet offshore and create a harbor. Unfortunately, a breakwater would likely adversely affect littoral drift and the creation of a Goleta Bay harbor is probably too extreme. Another strategy is the installation of

groyne A groyne (in the U.S. groin) is a rigid hydraulic structure built perpendicularly from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or a river bank, interrupting water flow and limiting the movement of sediment. It is usually made out of wood, concre ...

s (or groins), wood or concrete ‘fences’ that stretch out into the ocean, perpendicular to the beach. Groynes cause sediment to build up on one side but have the unhelpful consequence of preventing sediment to accumulate on the other side. Another structure proposed is a

seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation ...

. A seawall is a concrete wall placed against the base of bluffs or sea cliffs that runs parallel to the ocean. While a sea wall may appear to be stopping erosion, a seawall can only diffuse wave energy which means that the areas on either side of the wall are likely to experience accelerated erosion. Again, this is not desired as the UCSB mesa might be adversely affected. A fourth type of structure is a revetment. A revetment is similar to a seawall but usually consists of boulders piled at the base of cliffs. While it is less likely to accelerate erosion to either side, the area in front of a revetment may suffer. Sediment that would normally have been deposited on the beach instead bounces off the rocks and is dispersed elsewhere.

Managed retreat

Some organizations of users, such as the Surfrider Foundation, have called for managed retreat. Scientists and coastal engineers know that hard structures cause greater erosion of the beach sand. This option would protect coastal resources while preserving park amenities by reconfiguring them. There is no evidence that the current protection measures currently in place have caused the erosion of beach sand at either Goleta Beach or any down coast beaches. The California Coastal Commission permits armoring in order to protect public access and recreational uses. This beach is visited by over 1.4 million visitors annually.

Beach nourishment

A third strategy is that of

beach nourishment Beach nourishment (also referred to as beach renourishment, beach replenishment, or sand replenishment) describes a process by which sediment, usually sand, lost through longshore drift or erosion is replaced from other sources. A wider beach ...

(a ‘soft’ approach). Nourishment consists of depositing sand on top of the beach in order to expand its width. This approach is not extremely expensive and is already being done at Goleta Beach. In addition to the direct transporting of sand to the beach, it would also be helpful if sediment built up in upriver basins (behind dams) be removed and placed slightly downstream to be naturally washed down to the ocean. The mouth of the slough should be kept open by periodic dredging as blockage causes

eutrophication Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytopla ...

. The Northern Gold Coast Beach Protection Strategy is an example of a successful execution of this technique. Between 1992 and 1999, the Gold Coast City Council worked with experts on a proposed plan to stop beach erosion. Options originally considered included groynes, breakwaters, and others but the City Council finally chose to

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

sediment from the nearby Gold Coast Broadwater, pump it through large pipes, and deposit it along five kilometers of coast. In addition, they planned a near-shore artificial reef to protect the project. Between 1999 and 2000, the plan was carried out with 1.1 million cubic meters of sediment being transported from the Broadwater to the beach (Jackson, 2004). Further dredging of nearby areas provided sand that was used to fill large

geotextile Geotextiles are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in two basic forms: woven (r ...

sandbags that were dropped nearshore to create the reef. Since then, the beach has been monitored with coastal imaging technology and has fared well. Due to the significant differences in the coastline and tidal conditions, this alternative may not be applicable at Goleta Beach. The area in dispute is currently fully armored with large boulders to the west of the restaurant building and has been so for a number of years. Another option on this project is to request the Coastal Commission to permit the existing rocks. There is no scientific evidence that the current protective measures have resulted in loss of sand to down coast beaches.

Notes

References

California Coastal Records Project
(aerial photography) - by Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, CaliforniaCoastline.org, October 23, 2004

at California Resources Agency

at UCSB * ttps://guides.library.ucsb.edu/erosion Environmental Sciences (Beach Erosion in the Santa Barbara Area)at UCSB * * *

External links

Goleta Beach Park at Santa Barbara County Parks
{{authority control Beaches of Santa Barbara County, California Beaches of Southern California Goleta, California Managed retreat Parks in Santa Barbara County, California