The ecology of Pacific Northwest coastal sand dunes

In other p1 aces, accreti an is a
problem, if not an immediate hazard.
Long Beach Peninsula (Locality 3)
has grown seaward by about 600 m
since 1950 (Reuf 1975), while the
southern end of the Clatsop Plan
(Locality 4) has gained over 60 m
between 1939 and 1968 (U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers 1971). The
current problems in these areas are
mainly social and legal--who owns
the new land and what to do about
l ost ocean vistas. Future problems
will involve erosional cyc1 es that
are poor1 y understood and unpredictable.
An extensive l i terature exists
(Fowl er 1979) to help people deal
with the hazards of building on the
unstable zone next to the ocean.
At best these measures can only
be temporary restraints, interfering
with a system in long-term dynamic
stability. As Godfrey and Godfrey
(1974) point out in their plea for
an ecological approach to dune management,
"we speak of man's "battle
with the sea' and 'his struggles with
erosion', but this is really a battle
to save works of man himself; the
beaches, if left alone, are in no
danger of obliteration by the sea".