DUNES: 



FRONTLINE FOR STORM 

 PROTECTION 



B y 



Ann 



Green 



When Hurricane Bertha hit Jenny Godwin's Emerald Isle beach house in 

 1996, it destroyed half of a sand dune and several small cedar trees. 



Not long after that, Hurricane Fran destroyed the other half of the dune. 

 To rebuild the dune and add the proper vegetation, Godwin turned 

 to Spencer Rogers of North Carolina Sea Grant and David Nash of NC. 

 Cooperative Extension for advice. 



Both Rogers, a coastal construction and erosion specialist, and Nash, 

 an extension agent in coastal management and commercial horticulture, 

 provided information about dune planting and dune management practices. 



"We started planting the dune six years ago," says Godwin. "Now we 

 have 14 species of native plants on our dune — from sea oats and American 

 beachgrass to bitter panicum and seaside goldenrod. The dune is now twice 

 its original size. During Hurricane Isabel, we gained sand." 



Along North Carolina's coast, the dune system provides many 

 benefits — from serving as an animal habitat to storm protection. 

 In The Dune Book, Rogers and Nash describe the benefits of 

 dunes as well as the best dune management practices along developed 

 shorelines where people, buildings and roads are already in place. 

 The new book was a collaborative effort between North Carolina 

 Sea Grant and N.C. Cooperative Extension. 



"A principal benefit for anyone living near the shoreline is 

 that a dune acts as a storage reservoir for sand," says Rogers. 

 "The larger the dune, the more time it takes to be eroded by 

 the waves, and the more protection it provides to areas further 

 landward. However, dunes do not provide protection from 

 seasonal beach fluctuations, long-term erosion or inlet erosion 

 — no matter how large the dune." 



16 WINTER 2004 



