FIXATION OF SAND

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24614, 10 July 1945, Page 3

FIXATION OF SAND

DUNE STABILISATION NEAR CITY TREES “ONLY PERMANENT WAY ” ‘‘There is only one permanent way of fixing sand, and that is by planting trees,” said the reserves committee in its report to the City Council last evening on the planting of 31,650 Pinus radiata at Bottle Lake behind the main foredune along the sea front immediately eastward of the main plantations. 1 , Although marram grass planting had been carried out over the whole of the area to prevent sand drifting and to stabilise the dunes, scouring still occurred during high’ winds, reported the committee. Owing to these circumstances, and to the injury to the young trees from salt-laden winds and from the cutting particles of winddriven sand, a fairly high percentage of losses must be anticipated. The question might reasonably be asked if, in the nature of the exposed position and the sterile nature of the yielding sand, it was worth the expense to attempt tree planting. For many years it had been a continual fight to save the existing plantations from the ever-encroaching mass of sand from the shore. By the construction of forward dunes and marram planting the main objective had been achieved, but the position still had to be consolidated. Possibly the trees along the foreshore would never become an asset for their yield of millable timber. They might always be stunted specimens but they would be the buffer on the front line of defence, so to speak, for the better trees immediately inland. The repairs to the main foredune had now been completed by the Army authorities. It would, however, be necessary in the future to carry out regular maintenance work on this dune to prevent further erosion. It had also to be recognised that with the'continual accumulation of millions of tons of sand along the beaches from the estuary to Brooklands it would become necessary to construct further foredunes on the seaward side of the present dunes to hold and to prevent the inland drift of this great mass.