Photo credit: Steve Leimberg 2021
We are just 17 weeks away from December 27, the day North Florida Land Trust officially became a nonprofit. For the past 25 years NFLT has been dedicated to preserving and enhancing North Floridians quality of life by protecting North Florida’s irreplaceable natural environment. As we count down to this milestone, we are sharing stories of who we are, how we got here, and what we do. This week, we turn our focus to a signature conservation project in Amelia Island—the conservation and protection of Little NaNa Dune. In November 2021, Steve Barberie, then a student in the University of Florida’s Florida Master Naturalist Program, wrote a blog post about NFLT’s acquisition of Little NaNa Dune and its significance. Read on for excerpts from Steve’s post and highlights from our soon-to-be-unveiled interpretative signage at Little NaNa Dune.
In early 2021, as part of its Amelia Forever campaign, the North Florida Land Trust acquired several relatively small parcels in the American Beach community on Amelia Island that contain a dune known locally as “Little NaNa.” The 1.5-acre acquisition may be fairly small in area, but it holds outsized importance in helping to protect a portion of the increasingly rare intact “ancient” dune system of the island. That this habitat remained intact and available for protection is largely a result of the unique historic and cultural legacy of the American Beach community.
In a typical scenario, sand blown and washed from the upper beach area accumulates and forms a “fore” dune which provides an opportunity for sparse and low growing pioneering herbaceous vegetation like sea oats, purslane, and railroad vine to take root. These fore dunes afford protection to a landward “transitional” zone that allows for succession and establishment of more diverse and substantial plant species like Spanish bayonet, saw palmetto, and prickly pear cactus. These taller rooted plants allow for still greater accumulation of blown sand, and the dunes grow higher. Over centuries, because of the dynamic nature of these sea islands, the fore dunes may advance more toward the sea, leaving more “ancient” dunes landward that continue to grow and evolve. Such has been the case on Amelia Island at American Beach with NaNa Dune and Little Nana Dune. These higher ancient dunes provide sufficient protection for more inland areas of the barrier island to mature into maritime forest habitats. (Fun fact: The height of the tree canopy in these forests correlates to the height of the highest protecting dunes. The stately canopy of live oak that graces much of Amelia Island is testament to the scale of the high ancient dunes that historically flanked its eastern shore.)
On much of Amelia Island, particularly the central and southern portions, a large part of this ancient dune system has been lost to, or permanently altered by, human development. Little NaNa Dune and the adjacent NaNa Dune are outliers in the southern part of the island in that they remain nearly intact. This is in large part due to their location within the American Beach community and the community’s unique historic evolution. The dunes that would become NaNa may have been centuries old when the nearby lands were settled by Samuel Harrison in 1781 during the British Colonial period of Florida. Like many settlers in these coastal sea islands, Harrison and his descendants established and operated a plantation, relying on slave labor in the antebellum period. After emancipation, many of the freed African American slaves who had worked on the plantation remained and homesteaded, establishing the successful community of Franklin Town, tucked at the southern end of the road from Fernandina. After the Civil War, and extending well into the 20th century, laws barring Black Americans from public facilities—including beaches—were common in the American south. Early in 1935, a group of entrepreneurs led by Abraham Lincoln Lewis, president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company (the Afro), sought to create a beach retreat for the workers at the successful Jacksonville insurance company. The beach near Franklin Town was a natural fit and on January 31, 1935, the Afro’s Pension Bureau acquired thirty-three acres of land just north of the town. Additional purchases expanded the area to a total of 216 acres and A.L. Lewis named this new community American Beach. By accident of geography, protectively ensconced within American Beach was NaNa Dune and Little NaNa Dune.
From its beginnings, American Beach was a modest development. Platted largely with 50-foot wide homesites, many of which would never be developed with homes, it made relatively small footprints on its natural environment. American Beach enjoyed its heyday from the late 1930s and into the early 1960s, becoming a popular beach destination for the larger Black American community throughout the region. In its earliest days, it remained off the beaten path at the end of the road on the south end of Amelia Island until A1A was bridged to the Talbot Islands in 1948. Even then, it escaped immediate development pressure. Hurricane Dora dealt a physical blow to the community in 1964, and the Civil Rights Act and resulting desegregation further impacted the community. American Beach began to wane in popularity in the 1970s, becoming a sleepy community of modest homes centered around the protective NaNa dunes. At this same time, development pressure on Amelia Island intensified, with the establishment of the Amelia Island Company which would develop what is now the Plantation resort area to the south of American Beach, taking over the historic Harrison lands, and ending the existence of Franklin Town. In the ensuing decades, the Summer Beach and Ritz Carlton developments encompassed much of the areas to the north. In the course of these developments, much of the ancient dune systems of the island have been lost in their natural state, instead becoming incorporated into landscaped golf course fairways or serving as foundations for ocean view homes and condominium towers. Few intact areas of the ancient dune system remain.
Largely because of its unique location, the NaNa Dune system escaped development, with only a few small homesites built into its peripheral edges. Primarily thanks to the tireless efforts of American Beach resident and A. L. Lewis’s great-granddaughter, MaVynee “the Beach Lady” Betsch, the greater 8.5-acre portion of NaNa dune was acquired by the National Park Service for preservation in 2005. NFLT’s subsequent acquisition of 1.5 acres containing Little NaNa Dune expands this protected holding to the south, providing an additional protective buffer for the larger fragile dune. While NFLT’s acquisition of Little NaNa Dune was primarily for conservation reasons and to protect a key part of Amelia Island’s coastal barrier ecosystem, it aligns with other ongoing efforts to preserve the cultural identity of American Beach. As available land for development in other areas of Amelia Island diminishes, the appeal of this area will continue to grow. At risk is not only the historic and unique cultural identity of the American Beach community, but the small scale and lower impact development it contains.
Did You Know?
- NaNa Dune is the highest dune in Florida at 60 feet, while Little NaNa Dune is the second highest at 52.7 feet.
- Little NaNa Dune provides vital habitat for gopher tortoises and migratory birds like the Sandpiper.
Do you have a story about how NFLT has touched you, or was there an acquisition or specific impact we made that resonated with you? We would love to hear it! Please email our Communications Officer, Sarah Hande, at shande@nflt.org with anything you want to share. It is our followers, readers, members, and supporters who make all of this possible – it’s now or never!
