Damage to our dunes is evident all around the coast

Some people throw their hands in the air in desperation at the sight of rampant coastal erosion, writes Donal Hickey. 

However, occasionally, there’s a glimmer of hope. Some coastal communities are taking action to try to save fragile dunes which have taken a severe battering from the effects of climate change, including fierce storms, in recent winters.

A 2012 study conducted for the Department of Arts and Heritage singled out 10 of our 40 dune systems of European importance (annex one) and found them to be in an “unfavourable’’ state. In Europe as a whole, it is reckoned upwards of 85% of dunes are under threat.

Controversial plans by a certain Donald Trump to protect his golf course in Doonbeg, Co Clare, have put a welcome focus on dune conservation. Environmentalists claim his proposal to build a wall and other solid structures would undermine a dune system which has defended land from the sea for centuries.

Damage to dunes is evident all around the coast. A place which is personally familiar, blue flag Rossbeigh Beach, on the Ring of Kerry, is an example of what is happening. A huge section of the narrow, sandy peninsula has been ravaged and washed away.

Not far away is another blue flag beach, Inch, where young people are giving a lead in restoration. On a recent weekend, 60 scouts planted marram grass to save a section of the Inch dunes. The scouts, some not yet in their teens, worked with Clean Coast An Taisce. The marram roots bind the sand, as if to hold it in place, and thereby help sand build up again in areas from which it is disappearing.

Fencing has been erected around the affected area at Inch — where some scenes for the epic film, Ryan’s Daughter, were shot in the late 1960s — and people are being asked not to walk there to allow the marram to grow.

Climate change gets blamed for lots of things, but other factors are also at play. Commercial buildings, houses, holiday developments, human and animal footfall and recreational activities are causing permanent damage, according to official reports.

However, the aforementioned 2012 study points out, the situation can be addressed through improved dune management, better grazing regimes, and more control of recreational use.

In other countries, sand-dunes are being used to protect coastlines. In the Netherlands, they believe protecting and restoring sand- dunes is cheaper and better at guarding the coast than hard coastal protection works.

The Dutch, who have a long engineering history of keeping out the sea, recognise the importance of dunes as a habitat for many rare animals and plants and for protection from flooding.