Plants the best dressing to reduce coastal wounds

Have you heard of a 'blowout' before?

These epic drone shots from Port Waikato show just how dramatically wind can impact our dunes.

A blowout starts as a weak spot in a dune system – often where plants are sparse or damaged.

As wind funnels through, it scours out more and more sand.

Like a wound in the landscape, it grows larger over time, weakening the dune system and removing sand from the natural sand system.

On the West Coast, sand naturally goes on and off coast then carries on northward feeding other beaches as it goes. A blowout on this coast, may mean more northern beaches become starved of sand.

At Port Waikato, a blowout could also allow the river to cut through a weak point, cutting the sandspit into bits, so the Port Waikato Beachcare team, local students and community have been planting like mad to strengthen these spots over the last few years.

Our native foredune plants, pīngao and kōwhangatara are crucial for a strong dune system – they have deep, binding root systems and their foliage can trap sand.

Many people don't know how important our wee dune plants are.

If you see people walking or driving on dunes this summer, please gently ask them to get off and stick to the tracks.

We need to protect our foredune plants so they can build strong dunes which protect us.