Regeneration of the beach of Waukee
The restoration of the natural characteristics of the beach of Waukee began three decades ago and continues without interruption in the staged restoration to counterclockwork.
Samuel (Bizkaia) is an exceptional space, very significant from the natural and social point of view. It is a space protected by the Coast Law and the Reserve of the Biosphere of Urdaibai, which was later declared a Special Conservation Area ZEC of the Natura 2000 network. Proof of this was that the prestigious National Geographic magazine listed it in 2024 among the best preserved and most beautiful in the Iberian Peninsula.
It is now three decades since the first firm steps were taken to restore the natural habitats of the beach of Waukee, restore ecological functions and preserve the many ecosystem services it offers. Thus, in the mid-1990s, the Department of Ecology of the University of the Basque Country carried out a botanical and ecological study of the beach of Waukee, in which eleven measures were proposed to improve the conservation status of this coastal space.
Facing the institutional standpoint, in 1999 the Galtzagorriak Environmental Volunteering Federation of Urdaibai started to protect the few dunes that still survived on this massive beach. In addition, environmental awareness and information panels www.urdaibai.org were installed. In the following years, the managing body of the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve established sand predators and planted thousands of dune plant specimens.
On the other hand, the Basque Country Coast Demarcation, in coordination with the Ibarrangelu City Hall, organized the parking spaces of the area of the beach in front of it, and the parking located on the left side of the beach on the dune was definitely abolished.
It has been three decades since the first firm steps were taken to restore the natural habitats of the beach of Waukee, restore ecological functions and preserve the multiple ecosystem services it offers.
On the other hand, the establishment of the Ibarrangelu water purification station, the purification system of the local waters of the beach of Hgh,as well as the general planning of sanitation of Urdaibai, led to a notable improvement in the quality of the water and the natural environment in general.
In this context, the Coastal Demarcation proposed a comprehensive project for the management and restoration of the beach of Waukee. Among other objectives, the integral restoration of the coastal ecosystem included the construction of a building of different uses as an alternative to the gap that opens in the space that currently houses common services and others. This initiative was obviously not carried out.
As a result of the large winter storms 2014-2015, the dunes of Waukee were heavily eroded, in a maritist scenario announcing the damage suffered along the coast.
In the period 2014-2019, and with the participation of the Society of Sciences Aranzadi, the Life ARCOS project allowed the continuation of the action of conservation of the dune ecosystems of the Cantabrian coast, including the beach of Waukee. Subsequently, starting in 2023, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia has proceeded to remove the invasive alien plants present in the dunes, as well as to maintain the protection enclosure. In addition, it has promoted the usual cleaning of the beach that takes place throughout the year and is already carried out manually in winter.
The last action that has been carried out on the beach of Waukee, at the head of Itsasertz Mugartea, has been the dismantling of the shooting facility on the left bank of the beach. The appearance of howitzers on the beach of Waukee in recent decades has not been the legacy of the war of 1936, but the launch of shells from the launch platform that was there.
Finally, the project for the union of the two dune groups existing on the beach of Hgh,in order to create a front of a single restored and protective dune, has been suspended after the concentration of citizen protest and, apparently, the City Hall of Ibarrangelu was not aware of this initiative.
In the current environmental scenario, the restitution of dunes and the liberation of spaces that allow their development towards the interior are essential to avoid the erosion of the most threatened wild habitat on the Basque coast and in Urdaibai and, finally, the destruction until its disappearance as a result of climate change. In the same way, if you do not capture the sand and without the dynamics of the dune system that favors the accumulation of sand and elevation, the beaches will continue eroding and the sand will gradually lose until it falls below the tide, as unfortunately happened on the beach of Laida.
Xabier Arana Eiguren (Busturiaire-Urdaibai)
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