Due to extensive forest clearcuttings, especially after the
Seven-Year War (1756-1763), wind erosion appeared. Wind reshaped old parabolic
dunes, forming new relief. The Great Dune Ridge started to grow. It buried 14
villages under the thick layer of sand: Naumiestis, Priedinis, Senieji and Naujieji
Nagliai, Karvaiciai, Senieji Kuncai, Naujoji Pilkopa, Senoji Nida and others.
The sand threatened humans, so they started looking for ways to tame it. At the
beginning they were building wooden barriers, which helped very little.
The radical turn happened in 1768, when a professor
of Vitenberg University J.O.Titius offered to plant dunes with saplings of the
mountain pine, which were brought from Denmark. Planting was started in the middle
of the 19th century. Such specialists as S.Bjorn, C.J.Wutzke, G.D.Kuwert, S.A.Krause,
G.Hagen, H.Zenftleben, F.Ephia and others were guiding it. The Great Dune Ridge
was strengthened and the foredune ridge was formed along the spit. The foredune
ridge prevented sand drifting from the seacoast.
This rather interesting object has been erected over several centuries. People
started to work on it in 1805 and they still continue. A scientist from Dantzing,
S.Bjorn, proposed the method. Rows of pickets should be nailed along the coast
at first. The moving sand stops around them and forms the ridge. Then new rows
of pickets should be pierced on the top. Thus the ridge is growing until the foredune
is formed. Latter it is strengthened with willow twigs and planted with grass.