The city is also preparing to build and protect dunes along its two-mile boardwalk as part of a $72 million beach restoration by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Year after year we have invested hundreds of thousands of homeowner private dollars and thousands of person-hours to build and rebuild dunes.

Still, the city has declined to approve a proposal from the Army Corps of Engineers to build new dunes along its beaches as part of a storm protection project.

In coastal communities, the once popular practice of placing Christmas trees on beaches to trap blowing sand and build dunes is fading.

On the south, the winds built dunes.

It calls for fortifying the shore with 6.6 million cubic yards of dredged sand, building new dunes, strengthening 18 rock jetties and adding seven new ones.

This, along with sand bulldozed or scraped from the beach itself, will be used to build new dunes.

Consequently, the task force recommended that residents of Fair Harbor and Saltaire be allowed to build artificial dunes to prevent beach erosion, provided they pay for them.

The conclusion reached by Professor Norbert Psuty, associate director of the institute, is that multimillion-dollar projects to replenish beaches and build dunes are short-term and expensive solutions.

Flying dust has filled valleys, built vast plains, hills, and dunes, changed coastlines, and buried entire cities.