18 THE VEGETATION OF SHACKLEFORD BANK 



CONSERVATION OF THE VEGETATION 



The vegetation of Shackleford Bank is described at some length 

 because of the rapid changes in the physiography of the region now tak- 

 ing place. In the memory of living inhabitants, the Bank was well 

 wooded over its entire extent, the strand separating the forest from the 

 oceam beach being so narrow that it was "possible to sit in a tree and cast 

 a fishing line into the water." Before the Civil War, however, cutting 

 of timber, coupled with forest fires, the grazing of cattle and sheep, 

 and the inroads of gales, had broken the protecting wall of vegetation 

 and allowed the sand from the beach to blow in on the trees. Slowly 

 at first, and then more and more rapidly, the sand was blown in on the 

 vegetation, killing or covering the existing plants. At the present time 

 the forest east of Wade's Shore (see map) has been destroyed, and this 

 portion of the Bank is a sandy waste, with here and there a wind-blown 

 dune sheltering a remnant of the former vegetation. In the western 

 and wider portion of the Bank the progress of the sand has been slower, 

 and perhaps half of the original plant covering remains. Here the 

 work of destruction is going on at a rapid rate. The dry sand, blowing 

 over the wide beach, is carried to the edge of the forest and there falls 

 over a slope of an angle of about 30°. This sloping sand- wall is advanc- 

 ing on the forest at a rate of 4 to 12 feet a year and killing all vegeta- 

 tion in its path. As the beach broadens, the sand will drift in with 

 increasing rapidity, until within a comparatively few years the foresi- 

 covering will be obliterated. 



The -results of this will be twofold. It will probably lead to the 

 abandonment of Shackleford Bank as a permanent place of residence, 

 because without the protection afforded by the vegetation, the winter 

 storms will sweep . over the land with such force as to make residence 

 unsafe. In the second place, the sand vnYi continue to drift north with 

 increasing rapidity, and this will have a tendency to fill in the rather 

 narrow sound lying between the bank and the mainland. The hindrance 

 thus caused will be slight, because few boats now pass this way, the 

 channel being tortuous and in places quite shallow. Of more impor- 

 tance will be the effect of the closing of the channel on the^ fisheries of 

 the region. The enormous number of mullet and other fish now coming 

 through Core Sound to Beaufort Inlet would pretty certainly be diverted 

 to some other inlet farther northeast. Whether this would result in a 

 diminution of the total catch of Pamlico and Core sounds, or whether 

 the loss at one point would be compensated for by a gain at another, 

 cannot be stated. At any rate there Avould be a serious disturbance to 

 the conditions which noAv make fishing profitable in this region. 



