Keeping an eye on this scrimmage is 

 a referee — the Coastal Area Manage- 

 ment Act (CAMA) and its enforcers. 

 CAMA tries to lessen people's impact 

 on the dunes in "ocean hazard areas" 

 by regulating stabilization and con- 

 struction near and on the dunes. 



There would be little need for 

 CAMA to referee, however, if people 

 today would take a hint from earlier 

 coastal settlers. They understood the 

 dunes were changing, moving constant- 

 ly westward like the sun. Then, peo- 

 ple built on the backside or soundside 

 of the barrier islands. And, if the ocean 

 started creeping too close, they would 

 put their houses on huge logs and roll 

 them out of its path. 



The dunes along the Outer Banks 

 were smaller then, and the ocean often 

 mounted their crests, surged landward 

 and retreated, leaving large deposits of 

 sand. But during the 1930's, the 

 Civilian Conservation Corps stabilized 

 the dunes in a large continuous mound 

 of sand from Currituck to Ocracoke. 

 Beach grasses and sand fences held the 

 tall dunes in place. The ocean no 

 longer overwashed the dunes and peo- 

 ple began building closer to the sea. 



But these man-made dunes may 

 have hurt more than they have helped 

 the Outer Banks' barrier islands, says 

 East Carolina University geologist 

 Stan Riggs. "Much of the Outer Banks 

 are eroding from both sides now," he 

 maintains. "The ocean can no longer 

 overwash the dunes and build up the 

 backside of the islands. At places like 

 Rodanthe the estuarine erosion is as 

 bad or worse than the ocean erosion. 

 The barrier islands are becoming very 



skinny in places." 



Riggs says the high barrier dunes 

 may also be increasing beach erosion 

 by making the beach narrower and 

 steeper. They may allow the ocean to 

 take larger bites of sand, especially 

 during storms. But Riggs says he is not 

 convinced of this "overwash" explana- 

 tion of barrier island dynamics. Other 

 scientists, also, question its validity. 

 "We don't know as much about the 

 dunes and barrier islands as we once 

 thought we did," he says. "We need to 

 do more research before coming up 

 with any definite answers." 



Taking root in windy sand 



is not an easy 

 way 



to go about 

 finding a place to stay. 



from "Dunes" by A.R. Ammons 



While the dunes may be a tem- 

 porary defense for man and a 

 replenisher for the barrier islands, 

 the dunes are also a storage bin for 

 sand. During storms, the ocean washes 

 large amounts of sand from the beach 

 and dunes out to sea. There, the sand 

 forms ocean sand bars that lessen wave 

 action. After the storm, the ocean 

 gradually pushes these sand bars 

 landward until the sand is again 

 deposited on the beach. The sand par- 

 ticles dry in the sun, then are picked 

 up by the wind for a ride down the 

 beach. This ride may come to an 

 abrupt halt when the sand particles 



meet a blade of beach grass or a sand 

 fence head-on. The sand particles 

 collect around the grasses or fence. The 

 result can be a dune. 



These ocean dunes are part of the 

 beach-berm system that is built from 

 the tug-of-war between the beach and 

 the waves. But there are other types of 

 dunes along our coast and they're not 

 all on the beach. 



Behind the beach dunes is a massive 

 dune ridge that includes dunes like 

 Jockey's Ridge, Pennys Hill and dunes 

 on Shackleford Banks. The dunes have 

 been formed from excess sand, Riggs 

 says, that has blown and washed over 

 the beach dunes. The excess sand 

 comes from an old shoal system that 

 lies off the North Carolina coast. Some 

 of the dunes remain active and semiac- 

 tive, Riggs says, which means they're 

 still moving. "For instance, Jockey's 

 Ridge is an active dune," he says. "It 

 has little vegetation, so the wind con- 

 tinues to move the dune. It's not a 

 change that you can see from day to 

 day, but one that can be seen over the 

 decades." 



Behind this moving dune ridge is 

 another series of dune hummocks that 

 were formed during the last glacial age. 

 It is on these dunes that the maritime 

 forests have grown, Riggs says. These 

 dunes and their forests are important 

 to the barrier islands as collection 

 points and storage areas for the only 

 fresh water on the islands. 



"There is a lot we still don't know 

 about the dunes and a lot we have to 

 learn," he says. "But, we do know the 

 dunes are an integral part of the 

 coastal community." 



Beach grasses trap sand, rein in galloping dunes 



If the dunes are so important to our 

 beach system, then how can we make 

 sure they'll always be there to protect 

 us? 



"The dunes are a mobile part of a 

 mobile system," says Stan Riggs. 

 "They're not a stable entity. The best 

 way to protect them is to let them do 

 their own thing." 



The Coastal Resources Commission 

 agrees that the dunes should be left to 

 themselves, so they've developed some 

 dune standards which provide the 

 dunes some protection from man. 



The Coastal Resources Commission 

 enacted the following dune regula- 

 tions: 



• Landowners must build behind 

 the crest of the large primary dune or 

 the erosion setback line, whichever is 

 farther landward. 



• In building new dunes, a land- 

 owner must align the new dune with 

 adjacent natural dunes. 



• Existing dunes cannot be ex- 

 tended seaward unless they are ex- 

 tended naturally with vegetation or 

 during an emergency. 



• Sand used to build new dunes 

 must come from outside the ocean 

 hazard area. 



• No dunes can be created in inlet 

 hazard areas. 



• Pedestrian crosswalks should not 

 alter the dunes and should not be 

 greater than six feet in width. 



"It's time we started zoning and 

 building structures that are designed 

 to live with the changing environ- 

 ment," Riggs says, "instead of trying 

 to make the environment change for 

 us." 



