Ecological coastal services for Long Island’s beaches, dunes, bluffs, and beachfront properties.
Dunes heavy with beach grass, full of nesting shorebirds. Bluffs supported by a web of trees and shrubs, their roots stabilizing the soil and interwoven through decades of growth. The beaches and ecosystems along Long Island’s shorelines are precious, beautiful, and form a critical natural barrier between land and sea.
At Spadefoot, we are dedicated to protecting, supporting, and emulating these systems through ecological landscaping and restoration services built on coastal science, not conventional landscaping.
Many beachfront homes and coastal properties face an eroding coastline and growing risks of flooding. We address these problems with living solutions: introducing native plant communities and restoring coastal environments that serve as natural buffers against storm surges, wave action, and rising water levels.
Plantings of American beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) and other native dune species that trap wind-blown sand, rebuild dune profiles, and create protected nesting habitat for shorebirds. Healthy dunes are the first line of defense against coastal flooding.
Native trees, shrubs, and deep-rooted ground covers installed to bind bluff soils and reduce erosion. Root networks interweave and strengthen over time, creating a living structural system that gets more resilient every season.
Graded swales planted with salt-tolerant native species that slow stormwater, improve infiltration, and reduce erosion hazards on coastal slopes and low-lying properties.
Native salt-tolerant plantings that replace or supplement hard structures like bulkheads and rip-rap. Living shorelines filter stormwater, stabilize the shore, restore nearshore habitat, and outperform engineered structures over a 20-year horizon.
Our approach is to emulate naturally occurring systems and apply our understanding of coastal ecology to solve erosion and flooding problems. We do not fight the coast. We work with it.
Too often, the same plants are used on every coastal property with no regard for the site’s actual conditions: salt exposure, wind patterns, soil composition, drainage, and proximity to the water table. The result is a landscape that struggles from day one and requires constant intervention to survive.
We take the opposite approach. We embrace the salty, windy environment of your beach house or coastal property and select native plants that are adapted to those exact conditions. The result is a landscape that is resilient, beautiful, and thrives with minimal maintenance.
Plantings selected for your site’s specific exposure to salt spray, wind, and tidal influence. Species that evolved on Long Island’s coast, not imported from nursery catalogs.
Multi-layer native evergreen and deciduous screens that buffer wind, reduce salt damage to structures, and provide year-round privacy without constant replacement.
Transitional plantings between your managed landscape and the dune system. Designed to complement and protect the natural dune ecology, not compete with it.
Rain gardens and infiltration plantings that capture roof and hardscape runoff before it reaches the beach or bay. Native species filter nitrogen and petroleum from stormwater, protecting nearshore water quality.
Native coastal species have evolved over thousands of years to handle the specific stresses of Long Island’s shoreline: salt, wind, sandy soils, drought, and periodic flooding. Their root systems are deeper and more extensive than ornamental alternatives. They require no irrigation after establishment, no fertilizer, and no chemical pest management. They support native pollinators, shorebirds, and the broader coastal food web. And they get stronger and more beautiful every year.
We take your project from on-site ecological assessment to tailored design and careful installation—ensuring a resilient coastal landscape that establishes properly and sustains itself over time.
Tell us about your coastline, erosion challenges, and site conditions—our team will design resilient, nature-based systems that stabilize beaches, reduce flood risk, and protect long-term coastal assets.
