Recently, from the deck of an apartment of friends high above the Atlantic Ocean in Florida, we witnessed an amazing effort at rebuilding a beach. Beaches, like everything else, erode as mother nature bangs away at them with wind and wave action. Nothing is immune from the need for maintenance, including beautiful sand beaches.

It reminded me a bit of accounts that I have read of the Seabees building ports and airbases in the South Pacific during the Second World War. Immense bulldozers moving tons of sand, a “sandhog” ship bringing in dredged sand from offshore and then pumping it ashore with sea water through a huge steel pipeline to be deposited where the bulldozers can spread it out to restore the beach. Incredible!

Yes, there are state, federal and county tax dollars helping make it possible. However, homeowners on the beach (about 75% of them having voted to approve) are driving the investment. Think about how sidewalks are often paid for–the government helps but homeowners also have to pay for some it. Such are the ways of paying for public infrastructure.

Everyone involved knows that this won’t be the last time this beach will need to be restored–it happens about every 8 or 10 years. As sea levels rise, it might even happen more often.

But, if the ocean is your front yard and the beach something that you love, you “suck it up” and invest in it. That is the American way, that is the human way civilization has always operated.

Watching the intricate coordination of ship, dredge, pipeline laying and bulldozer for me was stimulating and up-lifting. I have always been intrigued by public works and civil engineering whether it is road-building, power plant construction or now…beach building.

It also speaks to mankind’s indefatigable perseverance in taking on the forces of mother nature. If you ever want to read a book about this, I would recommend John McPhee’s The Control of Nature. Despite the futility of trying to win a fight against mother nature, we still push on in our attempts to do so whether it be trying to divert lava flows in Iceland, stop mudslides in California, build levees on the Mississippi or rebuild beaches in Florida.

As with all large civil construction projects, beach-building goes on day and night, 24 hours straight.

Shifts change, the sandhog barge comes and goes, lights are turned on at night to illuminate the site, and in the morning, when you wake up, there stands before you another 500 or 1,000 yards of new beach. For a few days the ocean wins…the winds and surf are too much for the beach-builders. But, they are back again as the waves subside, and like a giant amoeba the new beach starts to spread and grow again.

Man against the elements. Whether it is the Great Wall of China, Roman roads going through the Alps, harnessing the power of the Niagara River, or rebuilding a beach in Florida–we continue to engage in our battle with mother nature. We know that, in the end, mother nature will win, but the human spirit never gives up and so we will continue to build our public works so that at least, for our lifetimes and, hopefully, for a generation or two, we can continue to enjoy the gifts that mother nature gives.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.