Act now or lose your investment: sand fencing in peril !!!
The winter storm season of 2025-26 is fast approaching. Many communities, Local Authorities and projects around Ireland have invested in chestnut paling fences to help stabilise their dune systems.
These are excellent at trapping sand, reducing footfall and letting dune vegetation take hold. The root systems binding the sand have already strengthened the dunes over the summer months, and they will slow down the erosion of the winter storms. That is not to say they will stop erosion, they slow it down. If the storm season is benign those roots will produce new plants in the spring and get a head start on trapping sand next year.
It is important, therefore, that they get that helping hand next spring too.
That means the sand fencing needs to be removed in the coming weeks, in order to prevent losing them to those winter storms. We cannot forecast when the 1st major storm arrives, but historically from mid-September onwards they are possible. For example, Violent Storm Ophelia occurred on October 16th 2017. We can forecast the tides though, with the next spring tide peaks being October 8th and November 7th 2025.
So logistically, planning for removing your sand fencing should aim for the few weeks leading up to October 8th. See here for further advice.
