Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Hurricanes on sandy shorelines · By Dirk Frankenberg
Preserving the forest canopy
Figure 17. This house was built in the maritime forest without disturbing or destroying it. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
Figure 17 shows another house sited in the maritime forest. As with the house shown in Figure 16, its roof extends the shape of the forest canopy. In addition, this one has a driveway that was built without destroying the forest above it. This was another good decision environmentally, because maritime forest trees adapt to specific levels of wind and salt spray. As long as these levels stay the same, the trees survive. If however, the canopy is opened up during construction, the level of wind and salt exposure for trees in the forest interior will go up. Trees usually die when exposed to newly increased levels of wind and salt spray so maintaining the forest canopy as has been done here protects both the landscape and whatever is constructed within it. It is an environmental win-win situation that is rare on barrier islands.
