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Dieren en planten

Water en land

Mens en Milieu

Coastal protection   Drift dikes   
Drift dike, northern Texel, Ecomare

Drift dikes

At places where the interplay between sand and wind does not form a row of dunes naturally, man can give nature a hand by constructing drift dikes. Sand is caught with the help screens made from branches or reed placed in a long straight line. When enough sand is caught, the dune is planted with marram grass. Drift dikes are easy to recognized in the landscape by their unnaturally straight row of dunes.

On Texel


, Sytske Dijksen, www.fotofitis.nl

Sand dikes have been constructed on many areas on the island, in order to close off sea channels and to reclame land. In the winter, marram grass was planted on the new sand bodies. When the plants took root, they helped to hold down the sand and made the dikes sturdier. The clumps of marram grass were retrieved from other dunes in the area. This technique has been applied since the Middle Ages. The prettiest and largest sand dikes are found by the Slufter.

  • Importance

    The Dutch Wadden Islands thank much of their present form to the construction of drift dikes. The old land of Texel and Eierland were connected together with a drift dike in the 17th century. Vlieland and the Vliehors would have been separated from each other if it were not for the drift dikes near the Kroon's Polders. Ameland and the Oerd have been connected together with a drift dike as well as Terschelling and the Boschplaat. Drift dikes were constructed in 1960 on Schiermonnikoog and Rottumerplaat as part of the plan to reclaim the entire Dutch Wadden Sea.