Chapter 7.8 Dune Revegetation at Stuarts Point Questions

1. The coastal dune management area that is of the is Stuarts Point and it is a small coastal village located on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Stuarts Point was conducted on the sand dunes. Stuarts Point dune area is 5km long with its width varying from between 200 to 400 metres.
2. The Timeline below is in bulletform:
   

   1893- The mouth of the Macleay River in 1893 was just south of Grassy Head headland.

   1965- The Solid Conservation Service provided native plant seedlings and planting advice to the association of Stuarts Point in what was to be the start of the revegetation program for the dunes.

   1970- In 1970 a joint venture involving the Department of Lands, the Department of Public Works, the Macleay Shire Council, and the Soil Conservation Service of New South Wales was established.
3. The role of the local community is to keep planting more plants and to keep the revegetation going because if the planting is stopped then the beach could be and the people, and even housing could be threatened.
4. The Sand Dune area is important to the people of Stuarts Point because other than the great publicity and tourism it gets, it could possibly prevent the safety of the beach and properties around the beach. Everything could be threatened and dangerous as well as loss of money from tourism.
5. The natural vegetation succession on sand dunes is pretty big. There is vegetation on the incipient dune (grasses and creepers), the fore dune (shrubs and short lived trees), and then there is the hind dune (long-lived trees).
6. Vegetation is so important in stabalising sand dunes because the vegetation prevents the sand from blowing away. It keeps the sand and minerals fixed in space. If the sand blows away then the dune could blow away and then there would be know dune; and if there is a settlement or something built on the dune and it blows away then the settlement or building may collapse. 
7. The cattle grazing on the sand dunes made it very fragile and made the vegetation on it, become destroyed. The vegetation was either stepped on or eaten by cows and other animals.
8. The changes that would have occurred would have been that with the vegetation gone, the only thing showing would have been plain sand. Deposition would have occurred because without the vegetation the sand would have been left unprotected and not fixed together and so the wind would have been able to and probably transported the sand and minerals elsewhere.
9. The groups involved in the rehablititation program were the Soil Conservation of NSW, the Department of Public works and the Macleay Shire Council, the Department of Land, the Local Stuarts Point community, and the Stuarts Point Progress Association.
10. The first stage involved is using a tractor to form a small foredune. On top of this a dune-forming; a fence was constructed. Coastal Spinifex and marram grass was then placed onto it. The second stage involved planting trees along the riverbank to stabilise the western area. They then planted native seedlings in the area between the foredune and the riverbank. Then fast growing wattle were planted then coastal tertiary species were planted.  
11. The geographical processes that would have caused the mouth to silt up was longshore transportation, longshore drift and deposition. Which causes it to prevent any access of boats.
12. Revegatetaion helped do a lot of things for a lot of things; some things were: Stabalising sand dunes- the stabalisation of the sand dunes were very successful as they are still there and haven't been blown away. There is now little evidence that the sand blows away because of wind; only the sand that doesn't have plants on it. Protecting the Macleay River Ecosystem- this was of great success as well because the council's managed to replant the vegetation and plants on the dunes without causing harm or effecting them. There is only one issue though, a plant called the Bitou Bush, which is a harmful weed that is spreading all over and around the dunes and the dune systems. Benefiting groups from the local community- was a huge success, the community now has an easy accessible pathway.