In post-disturbance contexts environmental stewardship activities are important activities for their role in supporting individual and community-level response and building adaptive capacity. The varied stewardship responses are representative of ideas and mechanisms about how people relate to nature, people and their local environments, for example as urgent biophilia and restorative topophilia post-Hurricane Katrina (Tidball & Krasny, 2014), and memorialization post-9/11 (Tidball et al., 2010). The purpose of this study was to investigate the emergent stewardship activities following Hurricane Sandy, focusing on stewardship on the Atlantic shoreline of the Rockaway Peninsula. This qualitative case study (Yin, 1994) utilized ethnographic methods of participant observation in stewardship activities, in-depth semi-structured interviews with stewards themselves, and archival media research produced by the stewardship groups to investigate the meaning of their stewardship activities.
Results/Conclusions
This study found that dune stewardship practices, particularly dune creation along with the planting and promulgation of American Beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata), emerged following the Hurricane. These activities were discussed as important resilienceactivities by the community and Department of New York City Parks and Recreation. Focusing on three practices (NYC Parks + Surfrider, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, and the Breezy Point Cooperative), this presentation will show how varied land management regimes along the peninsula led to different forms of dune stewardship and different opportunities for community engagement, learning and management. Layered onto the socio-spatial demographics of this coastal community, this presentation will conclude with suggestions for ecologists and managers for thinking about their practice and community engagement in stewardship practices post-disturbance.