1,000 tiny seedlings will one day fend off mountain of moving sand at Jockey’s Ridge

NAGS HEAD, N.C. — More than 300 longleaf pine seedlings rise just six inches from the ground on the south side of Jockey’s Ridge State Park.

They may be small and look like a child’s cowlick now, but in a few years, they will stave off the mountain of sand drifting toward homes on Soundside Road.

The pine seedlings were among the 1,000 planted two weeks ago to stabilize the largest sand dune on the East Coast and diversify the habitat, said ranger Austin Paul.

Park staff also will put up wood slat sand fencing and possibly add old Christmas trees to stand in for the slow-glowing trees, Paul said.

The mountain of sand that is Jockey’s Ridge shifts about six feet a year as winter winds blow the sand to the southwest. The dune can move more than 30 feet some years, forming ominous cliffs near houses and roads.

Two years ago, an excavating company moved 200,000 tons — or about 14,000 dump trucks — of sand away from Soundside Road to the opposite side of the park.

A stand of longleaf pines planted 15 years ago has matured into a small wooded area that, along with native grasses and shrubs, holds the sand at bay along one section of Soundside Road.

Last year, 1.9 million people visited the park, a record attendance and the most of any state park in North Carolina. The majority come to climb, fly kites and hang glide from the primary dune that reaches about 60 feet in height.

Rangers and volunteers planted 1,000 tiny longleaf pine seedlings in early February to help stabilize always drifting Jockey's Ridge. (Jeff Hampton)

But the park is a mile long and a half-mile wide. A maritime forest and a brackish marsh cover about a quarter of it with more than 400 plant species. It’s home to 160 types of birds and dozens of different mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

Shady clusters of live oak, wax myrtle, yaupon and holly quickly transform into an open expanse of sand scattered with tufts of beach grass. At the western edge, the sound laps against marsh grasses that serve as shorebird habitat. Hawks love to hunt the open ground.

“We have all these wonderful perspectives that are rarely seen,” Paul said. “It’s so unique. How many other places can you find something like this?”

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Longleaf pines will diversify the habitat even more, he said. They grow to more than 100 feet tall with flowing clusters of bright green needles and massive cones. Longleaf pine forests tend to leave an open understory where the sun can penetrate, encouraging growth of low-lying native flora, Paul said.

Three years ago, the park began intentionally burning wooded areas to rid them of invasive undergrowth such as Japanese honeysuckle, Paul said. Burns aid the growth of longleaf pine forests.

The hope is that more native wildflowers and the sundew plant, which captures and digests insects,

These young longleaf pines known for their extra long needles help diversity the habitat at Jockey's Ridge. (Jeff Hampton)

will grow here, Paul said.

Longleaf pine forests are second only to rainforests in habitat diversity, according to the North Carolina Longleaf Coalition. More than half of the approximately 1,630 plants species found in the southeastern U.S. grow only in a longleaf pine forest. Wildlife rarely seen along the coast, such as the southeastern fox squirrels, red cockaded woodpeckers and northern pine snakes, prefer that ecosystem.

Longleaf forests once covered 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas, according to the coalition. The trees were harvested for lumber and the sap was made into glues and turpentine for the ship-building industry. Three million acres remained in the southeast by the 1990s.

Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com