It's one of the shrub dogwoods such as Cornus amomum or something similar.

Writersblock, to really give you any suggestions we need more info. How close to the dunes? Is the area on the land side of buildings or homes or on the beach side? What zone? Here are a few suggestions for zone 10. On the dune side your choices are very limited to things like beach sunflower (does great), indian hawthorne, prickly pear (beautiful when it blooms in May), yucca, agave, seagrape and some Kalanchoe as well as sea oats of course. On the land side you have many more choices depending on how far you are from the beach. Wind is actually more of a factor than salt. Things to consider are crinum lily, ixora nora grant, geiger tree (although edges of leaves can brown with severe winds), poinciana and floss silk tree of course although larger than you want. Confederate jasmine can do well with a little protection, and surprisingly, epidendrum radicans (an orange ground orchid) does very well with some salt and wind and blooms about 5 months of the year. Foliage is always necessary though. If not palms, consider cycads. Dioon spinulosum is extremely underused and a very beautiful and interesting, tolerant plant that will last through much abuse. Of course, cardboard palm and coonties are also very tolerant of barrier island conditions. Variegated pittosporum is also a good foliage plant for the conditions. Anna

treebarb, I've been in love with Abies concolor for decades; have never owned one. I'll go peek at Lowe's. We haven't made a decision yet, family stuff in Florida happened and we just returned home. Do you think the shallow roots would be a problem? We don't want it falling over in the wind and hitting the house (but of course on a 3-foot Lowe's tree we'd not have to worry about that for a while)! The neighbor's trees are not any wind protection. One is at the very front of her house and the other smaller juniper is between our houses. The prevailing winds are straight up the slope much of the time, so whoever's out back is going to have to withstand 50+ up to highest measured at 76 mph. Doesn't happen all the time, of course, but I'd say 20% of the year at least. I just looked up Bosnian pine: "tolerant of severe wind exposure". I like its looks online, and it sounds like the ticket to me. Thanks for your helpfulness. I very much appreciate it.

If you would like nitrogen-fixeing shrub native to New York: buffaloberry (Shepherdia spp.); go with Shepherdia argentea, as the berries are better tasting. Btw, most of the plants krazyaroider recommends are: non-native (to NY); invasive; and one is not even a nitrogen-fixer: redbud (that's a tricky one, since it is in the bean/legume family). If you'd like a tree that is nitrogen-fixing, choose a variety of native alder (Alnus spp.) Btw, keep in mind: buffaloberry is native to the midwest - AND TO NEW YORK - look up the distribution range maps (google: [the plant] + usda).. (...or pollen library)