FIGHT AGAINST SAND

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25389, 12 January 1948, Page 9

FIGHT AGAINST SAND

SAVING OF GOOD PASTURE WORK OF DUNE FIXATION “The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, January 9. In a little-known area on the northern side of the Waikato river’s mouth men have been fighting a long but successful battle against two formidable elements, wind and sand. Behind Maioro beach great masses of sand, driven by strong westerlies, have been creeping steadily inland, overwhelming valuable pastures and threatening thousands more acres of good farming country. But the invasion of the dunes has been halted, and on what was once a useless desert of shifting sand broad plantations of pines are growing vigorously. Seventeen years ago a vast tract of sand. 5000 acres in area, stretched nearly two miles inland, and was moving on to the coastal farms at the rate of a chain a year. Already 40 acres of one farm had been engulfed, and the settlers were watching with apprehension and little hope the approaching threat to their livelihood. They asked the Government for help, and in 1932 a camp was established on the edge of the sandhills, and the work of dune fixation began. The area became the site for a great experiment. and to-day the thriving forest is spectacular proof of its success. The Public Works Department’s reclamation engineer (Mr R. A. Reid), who 15 years ago plodded over desolate sandhills to survey the scene of an apparently hopeless task, now drives a jeep through miles of straight, green pines. Dune Fixation The work of dune fixation is carried out in three stages. First, an area is planted with marram grass, which thrives in shifting sand. When the grass is established, lupin is sown among it. The marram shelters it until it has gained a firm footing, and when the lupin is high enough long swaths are cut through the thick growth. There, sheltered by high hedges of lupin, the young pines are planted. They grow as well in the pure sand as in soil, and within a few years the lupins are smothered out, and the area is covered with a young forest. As the pines grow, falling needles decay and form a layer of new topsoil. The process of reclamation is repeated in blocks throughout the area, and at present 3000 acres are covered by pines, about another 1000 acres are planted with marram and lupin, and about 1000 acres remain to be covered.

The reclamation work is not as simple in practice as in theory. It calls for special skill as well as an abundance of patience and hard work. Nor does the work end with the establishment of the forest. The of the plantation, exposed to the wind and the sand, has to be protected, and one of the most important tasks for the experts is to make the accumulating sand form an even fore-dune which will- build out toward the sea and protect the country behind it. Gaps are constantly being cut by the wind, and if they were left unattended they could cause the collapse of the whole fore-dune structure. Fences, skilfully placed, have trapped the sand to form the fore-dune, and wherever a gan is opened new fences have to be built to bank up the sand again. Manuka brush and flax on wire frames are used to bridge the gaps and maintain the even contour of the high dune.

When the first pines were planted about 12 years ago, the young trees were obtained from Rotorua, but soon afterwards the experimental station established its own nursery on reclaimed land. Now hundreds of thousands of seedlings are growing in long, neat rows.

The reclamation work has grown to such proportions that the casual visitor who did not know its history might be excused for mistaking the area for a State forest. The reserve is, in fact, controlled on the same lines as a State forest. Wide firebreaks have been cut through the plantations to form 18 miles of road. Too great an area of sand would have been left exposed if the firebreaks had been left when the trees were planted out, so it was necessary to wait until the trees were well grown and then cut firebreaks through them. Miles of telephone wires stretch through the forest, so that fires can be reported in a matter of seconds, and in a tower which commands a view of the whole area a workman keeps a continual watch.

Staff Employed The forestry and reclamation work is sufficient to keep 70 or 80 men in the winter and 35 men in the summer fully employed. They live on the reserve in well-appointed cottages and are provided with good facilities for recreation. The nearest town is Waiuku, about seven miles away. Well away from the main road, the experimental station is known to few people outside the district, and yet its work is of national significance. The encroachment of sand on to farm lands is a problem of particular importance to New Zealand, which has 325.000 acres of sand dunes along its coast. A little over half of that area is on the west coast of the North Island. The work of sand dune reclamation began in 1921 at Tangimoana, near the mouth of the Rangitikei river. This project, which was completed successfully in 1926, was under the control of Mr Reid, and the experience gained has proved of the utmost value in later work. The only other experimental station similar to that at Maioro is in the Muriwai-Helensville district, where identical work is being carried, out in an area of 11,000 acres.