The Curonian Spit is a 98 km long, thin, curved sand dune peninsula that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It is the home of the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe.

The Spit, a sandy stretch of land was formed six thousand years ago, as sand accumulated in the shallower waters along the Baltic coast.     The sea winds shifted the sand, creating a range of large sand dunes.

Landscape

Today nearly all spit is overgrown by forests. There is a few dune areas where trees are absent.

On the western coast the sandy beach meets the sea. The fore dune ridge borders the beach. Behind the fore dune ridge, the sea sand plain (palve) lies. Further to the east there is the Great Dune Ridge. Its height varies from 10 and 15 m to 67 m.

The cross-section of the Curonian Spit

     Sand covered ancient forest soils          Fine-grained dune sand          Old eolian and marine sand          Organogenic sediments of the lagoon          Sea sand with gravel and cobble

1. Baltic Sea

2. Fore dune ridge

3. Sea sand plain (Palve)

4. Kupstyne

5. The Great Dune Ridge

6. Curonian lagoon

Due to forest clear cutting wind erosion appeared. The Great Dune Ridge started to grow. It buried 14 villages under the thick layer of sand.

So in 19th century people built a fore dune ridge, planted trees and grass.

Fauna

An estimated 40 mammal species can be found in the Curonian Spit. The elk, wild boar, roe deer, brown hare, red fox, stoat and grey seal are among them. Many species of water birds breed here.

70% of the land in the spit is covered by forest (6852 ha). More than a half of them were planted by humans. Coniferous woods are prevalent in the Curonian Spit (80%). It consists mostly of Scotch pine - 53% and dwarf mountain pine - 27%.

Flora

Problems of the Curonian Spit

•Natural processes

•Human activity

• Wind erosion – sand is blown away by the wind. As a result dunes are always moving.

• Storms – beach and dunes are being washed because of strong wind, high waves and rain.

Natural problems

Beach erosion and longshore drift – the particles of sand move along the coast. Thus in some areas beaches narrow while in the others they become wider.

The Result of a hurricane in 1995

The Curonian Spit also faces problems, which are caused by human activity:

•Klaipeda city and harbor. There is Klaipeda city with the population of 200 000 people near the peninsula. Klaipeda harbor influences the Spit negatively: pollutes water, air, makes noise.•Oil industry. There is oil mining platform D6 ("Lukoil") in the Baltic Sea Russian Federation territory, only about 30km from the peninsula!! Eco-warriors evaluate it as a big potential danger for the peninsula.

• Transport is one of the biggest problems in the summer when thousands of tourists visit Curonian Spit by cars. This causes air pollution, noise and that is dangerous for the unique nature of the spit. An important road connecting Klaipeda port and Russia makes the problem even bigger.

• Fires From time to time fires occur in the Curonian Spit. The causers usually are the tourists. This spring 250ha of pine forest was burn on the peninsula.

Saving the natural beauty

•The Curonian spit national part was established in 1991.

•In 2001 the spit was included to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

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