Sand, sea and sultry adventures: Is sex in the dunes a problem in North Holland?

Making love in bed? According to many people, this can be more exciting and so they seek refuge in the open air. Forest rangers say they are not happy about this: Breeding birds can be disturbed during the breeding season and people are not eager to watch.

Need a sex ban?

In Zeeland, the Oranjezon nature reserve near the dunes in Vrouwenpolder is ‘plagued’ by sex nuisance and even introduces a sex ban. The municipality has placed signs to make it clear that having sex is prohibited and that fines will be imposed immediately if you do.

Whether this is also such a problem in North Holland, foresters from various nature reserves do not think, according to a survey by NH. It is not common in the North Holland dune reserve, says forest ranger Wouter Bol: “We do not have much trouble, but sometimes you find condoms or there is a nuisance. Then you get a notification and you go over to say something about it.”

In the dunes of Den Helder it is rare, says the forest ranger there. “Sometimes something happens on the nudist beach or in a dune pan.” The dune area is quite narrow and very bare: “Then you are in full view and it is also very windy. My colleague recently met a couple who wanted to start the deed, but that’s about it.”

Penalty for disrupting breeding season

“If you address people and fine them, they are either very embarrassed or so exhibitionistic that they do it right next to the path and have to laugh about it,” says Wouter Bol. They are then fined for going off-track and disrupting the breeding season. “That is a standard fine of 100 euros for entering the entry condition. But not for the fact that they have sex there, that is so complicated.”

A forest ranger from PWN Nature Management, who prefers not to be called by name, understands that it is fun and exciting, but that it is not the intention for the breeding season: “Once in a while you come across a couple in the dunes. I usually send them to the trails and tell them that it is not the intention and that birds are breeding during the breeding season.”

In the Amsterdamse Bos, fines are sometimes given, says a forester: “It sometimes happens that I give a ticket for trespassing, but not much.”

Condoms are also sometimes found in the Amsterdamse Bos or something can be seen: ”Usually they do it in a remote place or around parking lots. Recently a couple was seen on camera. Well, that happens.”

Embarrassing

Forest ranger of Nature Conservancy PWN sometimes makes special scenes along: “It it’s embarrassing anywayt to see and especially to be there actually say something. I always speak to them, no matter how embarrassing, and tell them that it is not the intention. Sometimes people have the craziest reactions,” he says.

“Generally they go again to the hiking trail, but sometimes people say they just want to finish it. I send that then again gone again, but it is embarrassing and special.”