Looking Back: Building the Dune

“I believe that a leaf of grass is no less than a journey-work of the stars”
Walt Whitman

It’s been all about the grass, really: Sand fence and beach grass, though we didn’t know it at first. The wind blows the sand across the beach, and the sand fence slows the grains of sand down enough for them to drop onto the land and gather into mounds. The beach grass grows forward with deep roots that help to hold the sand in place, and the grass fronds trap sea oat pods so that they can safely take root. The sea oats grow in clumps that are strong and secure, with a deep network of ever-expanding roots. That’s what makes a sand dune grow and stay in place. It doesn’t happen by itself. Sand fence alone will gather sand, but without the plants to hold it there, a new dune can be in place one day and gone the next day, at the whim of the tide and the wind. During a hurricane, the dune system protects the land from damage and erosion largely by buying time against the elements of the storm. The longer it takes for the dune to be destroyed, the more the house and land is protected as the storm moves away. That’s important.

The local folks told us a lot of stories about how to plant beach grass. There were some creative approaches, including using a broom handle to both create the hole and push in the sprig, but common sense, what we read and what we heard were not in agreement. We tried several things before Vince finally designed a tool for planting that would work for us. This tool is a long dibble that can be used from a standing position, so that Vince can poke holes in the sand at the correct depth for planting, and I can then drop in the sprigs and fill the holes. Vince machined the dibble at home and had it welded by one of his friends at the Navy Lab. It's made of stainless steel, so it will be a useful tool for a very long time. It’s really too heavy, but it works for us. One year, we planted more than 6,000 sprigs across the winter. I complained, but it was a good thing to do.

The first time we ever planted beach grass was over Christmas. 2000 / New Year’s 2001. It was unusually cold, and the ground was frozen. We used the fireplace poker from the house we had rented to poke the holes. The grass that we planted thrived, but we didn’t get many sprigs in the ground that day!

The grass that we call “dune grass,” but whose name is really “American Beach Grass,” needs to be planted in the winter. We buy the grass sprigs in bundles of 250 from Central Garden, a nursery in Kitty Hawk. Each grass sprig must have its own hole, though we sometimes put two sprigs together. Vince and I can do this job, he poking the holes with me skittering along on the sand dropping in the sprigs, for about two hours, maybe three, and that’s enough for one day.

When Vince and I bought the lot in August, 1999, it was flat. At the time, we had no idea how important it was that the lot NOT be flat, especially not flat enough to easily see the breakers from the very back end of the property! Vince and I didn’t own a 4wd vehicle, and we were busy with other parts of life, so we didn’t go back up to the lot until Christmas, 2000. Not checking on the property was a mistake. People had been using it as a drive-through short cut to get to the properties on the next row back, creating a big depressed swath from front to back. Taking Ben Cubler’s advice, we had some guys put up the first of many, many rows of sand fence (they call it “sand fencin’”). It was New Year’s Eve, and those boys were already drinking, but the fence did go in. It was a beginning, at least. From then on, we fenced and planted, fenced and planted, and by the winter of 2002 / 2003, there was enough of a little bump of a dune and enough thriving grass sprigs to hope that we could get a CAMA (Coastal Area Management Act) permit. Firm plans were made to build the house that next fall. The Severna Park house was renovated and put on the market, I sold my school, Vince retired from Uncle Sam and began a temporary double dipping job in Arlington, VA., and we rented a little “beach box” house in Kill Devil Hills so that I could watch over the construction.

Two weeks later, on September 18, 2003, Hurricane Isabel took our entire sand dune, leaving the land scoured bare and flat, like a pancake…or the desert… flatter than flat! There was not a sprig of beach grass to be found anywhere, but the big clump of sea oats on the northeast corner survived. We were completely devastated, and it was time to start over.

In late September, 2003, North Carolina Sea Grant published The Dune Book, by Spencer Rogers and David Nash. Spencer Rogers has been the coastal construction and erosion specialist for NC Sea Grant in Wilmington, NC, since 1978. David Nash has been as extension agent in coastal management and commercial horticulture for the NC Cooperative Extension in Brunswick and New Hanover Counties since 1993. Vince and I attended a dune building workshop presented by NC Sea Grant after Hurricane Isabel, and we later spoke with Spencer Rogers by phone about rebuilding our dune. The processes Rogers and Nash describe are really effective, and we listened to them. With a lot of sand fence, thousands of grass sprigs, and 200 sea oat sprigs, the peak of our frontal dune is now about 20’.

The Dune Book can be purchased or downloaded from the NC Sea Grant website at:
http://www.ncseagrant.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=news_item&id=238

This is what the lot looked like after the hurricane: Very bleak.

By obtaining a CAMA minor permit in late autumn that year, we were allowed to have enough sand hauled in to jump start the new dune. Mark Thompson did the hauling, sculpting a mound about 4’ high and 20’ deep across the 120’ width of the lot. New sand fence was put in across the winter, and we planted beach grass at every opportunity. When the weather warmed, Vince and I planted 200 sea oat seedlings bought from Angie Kite at Coinjock Farms. Our dream for the new house was still alive and well, but it was in the nebulous future and completely dependent on the whims of the wind and the sea. Vince was determined to get that dune back into shape, and we spent a tremendous amount of time and energy either fencing or planting or fertilizing. By 2005, Vince had become dissatisfied with hiring local men to put in sand fence, and we began to do the work ourselves.

Putting in sand fence is hard work. We bought 50' rolls of sand fence and 4x4 posts at the Home Depot in Kitty Hawk, about 12 miles south of our house in Duck. We then hauled the materials up to the lot, which is about 25 miles north of Duck. Vince dug the holes and set the posts, and together we strung the sand fence from pole to pole, nailing the fence to the posts with staples and then tightening each weave. Vince did most of the work, and my job was to hold the fencing steady. Working together, we could manage about 3 roles in a couple of hours, but we were exhausted. Vince by himself could do two rolls in about two hours... also exhausting. In the winter of 2006/2007, Vince decided that we were up against impossible odds and bought himself a Milwaukee Hole Hawg drill, a 4' long, 5" diameter augur, and a small 1200 watt generator. With those three things, we could put in 30 posts in an hour, and stringing the sand fence was much easier. That winter, we did a huge amount of work, installing about 40 rolls of sand fence all over the lot. It was such a relief to have a good working system in place. Putting in the fence is still hard work, but what we have gained from it is incredible.

As a side note, it is important to understand that the damage from Hurricane Isabel came not from the wind as much as from the unusually high storm surge (26’ one mile out). If our house had been standing, it would not have been damaged.

Vince and I will always be working on our sand dune, planting and fencing, fencing and planting. Over time, we want to add more species of plants that thrive in our environment, because each one helps the others to survive, and they will help us to survive. In time and with another storm, we may have to build it again from scratch, but we can do that. It will help that the house will be there and the coffee pot and bathroom waiting.

Here are two slideshows to show the lot in 2003, before Hurricane Isabel, and then this year when we decided to build.