THE VICTORY OF THE SAND

Forest and Bird, Issue 153, 1 August 1964, Page 23

THE VICTORY OF THE SAND

By

J. D. S. ROBERTS

Near Pounawea, in the Catlins district, Otago, are numerous totara trees, dead, or slowly dying. This desolation, I hasten to state, is not due to man’s despoliation, but

to a peculiar freak of nature. These trees are within a few hundred yards of the sea, and separated from the beach by high, loosely formed sand dunes. Perhaps many hundreds of years ago, when possibly the trees were in full vigour, this sand commenced to shift, blown inland by winds from the sea, and back again by land breezes. The result was that for long periods the totaras were submerged and slowly suffocated before a contrary wind swept the sand away to its original position, leaving the trees once more exposed. But the periods of inundation won the battle for supremacy, and gradually death claimed the victims. For years this belt has been known as the Buried Forest.

When J first visited the area —I refer to some 60 years ago —the sand had receded, revealing a forest of bleak and whitened skeletons, and the ground was littered with broken and bleached branches which had lain there for ages. Some of the standing

boles were huge., and must have been quite a thousand years old. Here and there, where the encroaching sand still maintained its grip, I remember seeing just the very tips, a few of them with only a fringe of foliage, and many, fully revealed, had the merest edging of green on the highest branch ends. Even to me, then aged about 12, it was a sad sight which has never faded. Today practically all this forest of death has gone, and only a few rotting trunks remain. On a return visit some four years ago I was unable to find the spot from

where I first viewed the scene, so changed was it. But the work of desolation still goes on, though on a much reduced scale. Further back from the dunes, sand is still being eroded, to lay bare the roots and weaken the life streams; and the prevailing winds have given the foliage a smooth flattened appearance not only to totaras, but to other varieties exposed to its force. And, of course, inevitable old age has much to do with the slowly declining vigour of what were once stalwart and magnificent specimens.