Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
The northern Outer Banks · By Dirk Frankenberg and Blair Tormey
Nonnative grasses at Run Hill Dune
Figure 7. By planting nonnative grasses on the dune in the distance, residents of the Outer Banks have stopped its migration. (Photograph by Blair Tormey. More about the photograph)
The Run Hill Dune is owned by the Nature Conservancy, and few attempts have been made to stop or slow its migration. This is largely because the dune is migrating over undeveloped portions of Nags Head Woods and thus poses no threat to major economic interests. Several measures were, though, undertaken in order to stop the migration of the large dune to the north of Run Hill. In the 1920s the dune north of Run Hill was covered with topsoil and planted with lawn grass in order to stop the migration of the hill upon which the Wright Brothers Memorial is built. This large hill with its nonnative grass can be seen from the crest of Run Hill Dune.
Figure 7 shows the view north from Run Hill Dune toward the Wright Brothers Memorial. Notice that the hill has been planted with nonnative grasses, which have stopped the migration of the dune upon which the monument is built. The natural grasses in the foreground, by contrast, have only slowed the migration of Run Hill Dune, and have not stopped it.
