Fighting the Sand-Peril 



At left, the sand encroaching 

 upon valuable fruit-growing land, 

 stifling it to death. It travels 

 with an utter disregard of all 

 barriers thrown against it by man 



Below, boards erected to shift 

 the sand and prevent the railroad 

 tracks from being covered. These 

 barriers do not last long under 

 such ruthless and persistent wear 



T 



O make a successful tight 

 against the ever-moving sand 



dunes of the Columbia River 

 region and at other places along 

 the Pacific Coast, the United 

 States must follow the plan adopted 

 by France many years ago. It 

 must build one great dune in an 

 effort to eliminate many smaller 

 ones. This is the verdict of Forest 

 Service experts who have made a 

 world-wide study of sand dunes 

 and methods employed to combat the 

 Since the planting of forests has been 

 found to be the most effective means of 

 checking the encroachments of sand the 

 problem is one that comes within the 

 jurisdiction of the United States Forest 

 Service. 



In the lower Columbia River valley, 

 l)oth in Washington and Oregon, sand 

 (huu's are destroying farms and orchards 

 and are changing country of great fertility 

 into waste land. Bearing orchards have 

 been completely engulfed by dunes and 

 l)uildings ha\^e been buried to the roof 

 line. Railroads have suffered heavily 

 and have spent large sums in efTorts to 

 keep their tracks from being buried. 



A hundred years ago France was 

 confnjnted with a problem equally as 



serious. More than 300 miles of coast- 

 line on the Baj' of Biscay was being 

 blown inland by the winds of the Atlan- 

 tic Ocean. The most fertile portion of 

 the country was threatened. Eventually 

 some one hit upon a plan of building a 

 great lateral dune along the entire 

 coast as a means of checking the 

 movement of the sand. About sex'cnty 

 years ago France set to work on this 

 great task. She only startc(f the building 

 of the tlune, howe\er, when Nature 

 took up the work and completed it. 



15)8 



