CLIMATIC FACTORS : THE AIR 1 1 5 



common. Whole forest stands may be buried and subsequently, 

 with shifting winds, be uncovered again to expose "graveyard" 

 forests of dead trunks and branches. 



The extensive dunes on the banks along the coast of the Caro- 

 linas have in recent years become increasingly active because their 

 cover was broken or reduced by overgrazing and other disturb- 

 ances by man. Acres of maritime forest have been buried, build- 

 ings have been destroyed, and channels in the waterways have 

 been blocked. Here, as in the dust bowl, are problems that require 

 drastic measures for solution, but such measures must take into 

 consideration the ecological factors involved. Cover crops, strip 

 cropping, mulching, and other modified methods of cultivation 

 are now general practice in the dust bowl and promise to give 

 some relief should an extended drought occur again. Long ago 

 many European coastal dunes were planted with forests and ef- 

 fectively stabilized. The Carolina dunes, though, occupy thousands 

 of acres with almost bare sand on which forests cannot be planted 

 until some stability is attained. Kill Devil Hill, the dune from 

 which the Wright brothers made their historic first flight, was 

 stabilized with grasses by Army engineers, after much effort and 

 considerable cost, through use of sodding, seeding, and watering. 

 Such methods are impractical on thousands of acres. The efforts 

 of the Civilian Conservation Corps were at least partially success- 

 ful. Taking only the native dune grasses, they transplanted them 

 according to several spacing systems and with some regard to 

 habitat variation over several hundreds of acres. Combined with 

 plantings, brush fences were installed at regular intervals across 

 the largest blowouts. A considerable part of their work has proven 

 effective. 



GENERAL REFERENCES 



R. F. DAUBENMIRE. Plants and Environment. New York : John Wiley and 



Sons Co., 1948. 424 pp. 

 W J. Humphreys. Fogs and Clouds. 

 O. E. MEINZER. (ed.) Hydrology. New York : McGraw-Hill Book Co., 



1942. 712 pp. 



C. W THORNTHWAITE. Atmospheric Moisture in Relation to Ecological 



Problems. 

 G. T Trewartha. An Introduction to Weather and Climate. 

 H. B. WARD and W E. POWERS. Weather and Climate. 



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