Driftwood
（重定向自Drift wood）
![A beach covered with driftwood.](/Images/godic/202501/10/Driftwood_NZ1810.jpg")
![Driftwood provides a perch for a bald eagle on Fir Island (Washington).](/Images/godic/202501/10/Haliaeetus_leucocephalus_334951810.JPG")
![These large diameter Sequoia sempervirens logs spent enough time exposed to wave action to round their contours before being driven into the mouth of a narrow ravine by storm surf. Sequoia's high tannin content is resistant to decay, so these logs retain structural strength for decades. Storm flows within Shorttail Gulch are insufficient to move the logs back to sea. This unique habitat at the mouths of small estuaries of the California coast is threatened by the diminished quantity of large redwood logs available in flood waters since the logging of aboriginal forests.](/Images/godic/202501/10/RedwoodDriftwood1810.png")
![Driftwood sculpture of a horse by artist Heather Jansch [7] at the Eden Project](/Images/godic/202501/10/Equus_eden1810.jpg")
Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea, lake, or river by the action of winds, tides or waves. It is a form of marine debris or tidewrack.
In some waterfront areas, driftwood is a major nuisance. However, the driftwood provides shelter and food for birds, fish and other aquatic species as it floats in the ocean. Gribbles, shipworms and bacteria decompose the wood and gradually turn it into nutrients that are reintroduced to the food web. Sometimes, the partially decomposed wood washes ashore, where it also shelters birds, plants, and other species. Driftwood can become the foundation for sand dunes.