TREATMENT OF SEEDING AND PLANTING SITES 195 



In the successful management of fixed dunes and sand hills 

 that are liable to blowouts the soil must not be impoverished or 

 exposed to the free sweep of the wind. This can be attained best 

 by forest growth, rigid protection from fire, the elimination of 

 clear-cutting, and the restriction of grazing. The forest should 

 always be kept densely stocked to the leeward. 



12. Artificial Regeneration in Dune Regions. When dunes 

 and inland sands through mismanagement, the removal of the 

 litter, or other causes, have become unstable, it is often necessary 

 to reclaim them by artificial means. In many cases it also be- 

 comes necessary to check the progress of dune formation in order 

 to prevent them from covering cultivated fields and other valuable 

 property. Permanent stability can be attained only when the sands 

 liable to shift are covered with forest. When natural regeneration 

 cannot be relied upon or when it is too slow, seeding and plant- 

 ing must be undertaken after the sands are temporarily fixed. 



In order to fix shifting sand permanently, two distinct operations 

 are usually necessary: 



a. Cutting off the supply of sand and temporarily holding the 

 soil in place. 



b. Establishing the forest. 



13. CUTTING OFF THE SUPPLY OF SAND AND TEMPORARILY 

 HOLDING THE SOIL IN PLACE. In the preliminary treatment of 

 inland sand, the blowouts on sand hills from which it originates 

 must be protected. This is usually done by covering them with 

 brush, sod, or other litter, or by the construction of fences to 

 break the force of the wind. 



In coastal dune regions the sand washed up by wave action 

 under normal conditions is blown inland by every sea breeze and 

 piled in a continuous ridge following the contour of the shore 

 line. This is called the foredune and is of the greatest importance 

 as it not only protects the land from the sea but also tends to 

 prevent the sand from blowing farther inland. In all reclamation 

 work attention is directed first to the development and main- 

 tenance of the foredune in order to cut off the further supply of 

 sand from the sea. In cases where the foredune is well shaped 

 and fixed, the entire dune area back of it is in its most stabilized 

 form. When the foredune is ill-formed, low, and broken the sand 

 from the sea passes over it and the area beyond may be very un- 

 stable. The first step, therefore, is to reconstruct and stabilize 



