with spartina and American beach grass plants and salt cedar cuttings. 

 Other plots were seeded with buffel grass, little bluestem, big bluestem, 

 switch grass, sand dropseed, and weeping lovegrass . Sprigged plants 

 appeared to survive well, and seeds produced an average crop of sprouts 

 soon after planting. Unfortunately, abnormally high tides during May 

 1966 covered the test plots, and destroyed most of the plants. Some 

 American beachgrass did survive the high water, but was later killed by 

 blowing sand and drought during the summer of 1966. The only experimental 

 plants that still survive are some spartina (marsh hay cord grass) which 

 were sprigged behind protective dunes in the San Luis Pass area. Consider- 

 ing the time, effort, and funds expended in attempts to establish vegeta- 

 tion on the new dunes and low beaches, the results were disappointing. 



5. SUSPENSION AND RESUMPTION OF EXPERIMENTS 



Reducing funding and imposed limitations on the scope of the work 

 under the Texas Coast Hurricane Flood Protection Studies made in necessary 

 to suspend sand dune experiments during the latter part of 1966. In 

 September 1967, high water and waves from Hurricane Beulah completely 

 destroyed all three of the newly formed, unstabilized, experimental dunes 

 in the Corpus Chris ti area. As late as April 1969, some water was still 

 passing between the Gulf of Mexico and Laguna Madre through Packery Chan- 

 nel, Newport Pass, and Corpus Christi Pass. The experimental dunes in 

 the San Luis Pass area were partly destroyed by Hurricane Beulah and later 

 washed away by high tides and waves caused by the unusual Gulf Coast Storm 

 of 13 and 14 February 1969. 



During the initial study, it was learned that substantial dunes can 

 be created in a short time on a large part of the Texas coast. There are 

 also indications that certain plants might effectively create and stabi- 

 lize sand dunes if conditions are favorable until they are established. 



These first experiments show further efforts should be made to de- 

 termine the most desirable means of trapping windblown sands with fences, 

 and of propagating grasses for trapping and stabilizing sand. Experiments 

 were resumed in February 1969 on South Padre Island near Port Isabel, 

 Texas, under a cooperative program. Participants in the current program 

 include the Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) , the Gulf Univer- 

 sities Research Corporation (GURC) , and the Galveston District. 



6. CONCLUSIONS 



The use of junk car bodies to build sand dunes is not recommended. 

 It appears that the overall porosity of car bodies placed end to end in 

 a line is too dense and somewhat alters the direction of sand-carrying 

 winds. One section of car bodies at Corpus Christi Pass accumulated an 

 average of 4.9 cubic yards of sand per linear foot of beach. During the 

 same period, a single line of picket fence at nearby Newport Pass accumu- 

 lated an average of 5.3 cubic yards per linear foot of beach. Based on 

 the cost of car bodies in place ($1.00 per linear foot) as compared to 



