FIXATION OF SAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23263, 4 February 1939, Page 21

FIXATION OF SAND

gOUTH ISLAND RAILWAY extensive dunes planted SUCCESS WITH MARRAM GRASS PINE TREES ALSO TO BE USED r ß y TELEGBAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] CHKISTCHURCH, Friday One of the major problems which Confronted engineers on the northern sector of the South Island Main Trunk railway —the menace of shifting sand extensive dunes—has apparently been successfully overcome. Extensive planting of marram grass has halted the advance of this sand across the route of the line and now it is intended to complete the task with a more or less experimental planting of trees. The method adopted to combat this sand —formerly always kept on the move by the high winds that prevail in the area —seeins to have achieved one of the most notable successes so far in sand fixation in the Dominion. Eighteen miles of the route of the line, along the northern sector between Kaikoura and Blenheim, runs through wide sand dunes. Drift From Sea Coast The stabilisation of these dunes meant a great problem for the engineers. When the construction of the line ceased during the depression, as one of the economy measures of the Government of the day, some advance had been made in dealing with the gand problem; but during the three ' years or so that construction was stopped the sand gained the upper hand again, and when construction was resumed miles ,of line had to be cleared of thousands of tons of sand that had drifted across from the sea coast. There is one point on the line where frequent high winds have driven the accumulated sand more than 200 ft. up a steep hillside. On the resumption of construction in 1936 extensive marram grass planting was started, and from ' the experience gained a method of planting adopted that has successfully stopped the advance of the sand over many hundreds of acres of land adjacent to the line. It appears that onlv verv slight difficulty will be met with in "the future from this once alarming menace. Intensive Planting Needed

In 1937 200 acres of marram grass was planted. When it was found that the planting was not intensive enough, and that wind was inclined to gouge out isolated holes in the sand and start a new drift, the planting was made mueh closer. More than 400 acres of 6and has now been planted and the sand fixation problem appears to have been solved. ■/. Now it is proposed to plant in trees about 1600 acres of sand and sea-beach country from which the dunes start. It is probable that under the forestry branch of the Railways Department a nursery will be established near _ the dunes and from these pinus insignis and eucalypts will be planted over this area, to act as a final binder for the sand. The remainder of the affected region will be left bound with the marram grass, which has spread in a few years with remarkable rapidity, until over many acres it now forms a great mass of vegetation.