Sand dunes were constructed on the borough's beaches in the mid-1990s at a cost of $10,000, using snow fences and discarded Christmas trees to build a base of wind-driven sand that rose , atop which dune grass was planted. These dunes helped provide significant protection to Bradley Beach from the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, blunting the impact of the storm surge and limiting damage in the borough to beach areas and homes near the shore to $3 million, while neighboring communities that hadn't constructed such dunes suffered much more extensive damage.